


Suppose, You'll Never Know

by markwardos



Series: 911/Grey's Anatomy Crossover [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alzheimer's Disease, Angst and Romance, Based on Grey's Anatomy, Canon Rewrite, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, One Night Stands, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:54:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23681938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markwardos/pseuds/markwardos
Summary: Buck has been pining for Abby since she left when he meets a stranger at a bar and has a one night stand with him. It turns out that guy is his new co-worker Eddie Diaz.A mix of canon except here it merges with Grey's Anatomy. There's no Grey's Anatomy characters her it's just all the 9-1-1 character we know and love, they still have their exact same jobs, the grey's anatomy character storylines are simply mixed in with their own.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan “Buck” Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: 911/Grey's Anatomy Crossover [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705291
Comments: 41
Kudos: 216





	1. A Hard Day's Night

Buck’s at the end of his rope, it’s been months since Abby has left and weeks since she’s bothered to answer a text or pick up the phone. He knows she has contact with the outside world cause she’s not opposed to posting the occasional Instagram picture. He comments on all of them, but she seems to respond to every comment except for his. He’d been supportive when she left because things were good between them, it was his first real relationship and he was...happy, and she had seemed sad about leaving him behind. He had trusted that she’d come back, so he didn’t move, didn’t stray, didn’t leave her place. He was stuck, stuck in time, and she had no time for him.

Loneliness leads him to some bar he’d never been to before after a long workday. He should have gone home, he had work early tomorrow, and it was set to be just as exhausting. It was still summer and people couldn’t seem to keep themselves out of trouble with more time on their hands. Buck got that, he seemed to have nothing but time on his hands, empty space to just wade in and wait for Abby to maybe respond to him.

He took a seat at the bar and nodded at the bartender when they came around and said, “Just a shot of tequila.”

“Straight tequila,” the bartender huffed, “You are going to be sorry in the morning.”

“I’m always sorry in the morning,” Buck laughed, “but keep them coming.”

Buck downed one of the shots as a man in a button-up dark navy blue shirt saddled up next to him.

“Double scotch, single malt, please,” the man ordered from the bartender.

Buck glanced at him and noticed that the guy was well above average in terms of attractiveness. He had golden-brown skin and a head of hair that anyone might like to venture their hands through. Not that Buck wanted to, it was...just an observation.

The man caught his eye for a moment before Buck turned his head forward again as the bartender poured the guy his drink.

“So,” the guy began, “is this a good place to hang out?”

Buck glanced back at him nervously as the guy flashed him a bright smile and Buck stuttered over his words, “Uh...I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been here before.”

The guy settled on the stool next to him and said, “You know I haven’t either. First time here. I’m new in town. Never been to Los Angeles. But new job so…”

Buck did his best to look everywhere else but at the guy and he seemed to notice cause he said, “Oh you’re ignoring me.”

“Um...trying to,” Buck said looking back over at him before staring forward again.

“You shouldn’t ignore me,” the guy said flashing another smile at him.

“Why not?”

“Cause I’m someone you need to get to know to love,” the guy said tilting his head a bit and saying it in such a way that Buck looked back at him and smiled a bit.

“Really? So if I know you I’ll love you,” Buck asks.

The guy smiles and nods, “Oh, yes.”

Buck can’t help but smile a bit, “You really like yourself, huh?”

The guy shakes his head a bit and says, “Just hiding my pain.”

It makes Buck laugh a bit and the guy laughs too before asking, “So what’s your story?”

“I don’t have a story. I’m just a guy in a bar,” Buck says shaking his head.

“I’m just a guy in a bar too,” he says.

When Buck wakes up his head is dull and achy from the tequila shots the night before and yeah the bartender was right he does regret it. Even more so when he looks over and sees a man underneath one of Abby’s blankets.

‘Fuck.’ He thinks before getting up and stealing the blanket off the guy and wrapping his naked body up in it and dropping a pillow on the guy. He knows it’s the guy from the bar though he still can’t recall a name nor the events of the night after a certain point.

The guy wakes up and holds up Buck’s boxers and says, “This is…”

“Humiliating on so many levels. You have to go,” Buck says as he steps over the guy still wrapped up in the blanket.

The guy sits up and says, “Why don’t you just come back down here and we’ll pick up where we left off.”

Buck tosses the guy's pants at him and says, “No seriously you have to go. I’m late to work.”

The guy pulls on his boxers and looks around and says, “So...you actually live here?”

“No. Yes. Kind of,” Buck stutters out and he’s reminded that he just had sex with a stranger in his girlfriend's apartment while she’s gone. Albeit a girlfriend who hasn’t spoken to him in weeks, but still, he feels terrible like he’s back to being Buck 1.0.

The guy looks around and says, “It’s nice. So...how do you kind of live here?”

“It’s a long story...And you know what we don’t have to do the thing,” Buck says waving his hand.

“We can do anything you want,” the guy says beaming at him again.

And yeah, Buck can see that that was probably his first mistake. Letting the guy smile at him cause, fuck does it make something stir in his chest.

“No the thing. Exchange the details, pretend we care. Look, I’m going to go take a shower, and when I come back you won’t be here...so um...goodbye…,” Buck says before getting stuck on the guy's name.

“Eddie,” he supplies.

“Eddie...right, Buck.”

“Buck,” the guy says smiling and hopping over the couch to him and shaking his hand, “Nice meeting you,” he adds.

Buck shakes his hand and dashes towards the shower and says, “Bye Eddie.”

  
  


He showers and when he comes out, Eddie is gone, and Buck is relieved and he really hates himself cause he just cheated on Abby. 

He quickly eats a bowl of cereal and pulls on his tee-shirt and pants before heading out the door to the fire station. 

Buck puts on a smile though and struts up to Bobby and Hen holding up his phone and says, “I’ve got another DXA scan and guess who dropped another half percent.”

“What?” Hen asks.

“A DXA scan. It measures your body fat. You can see your percentage in every part of your body.”

“Oh yeah,” Chim says walking up, “It measure the fat in your head?”

“Ah. See that would be funny, but we’re about a week away from submissions being due for the hot day, smoldering nights men of the LAFD wall calendar, and I’m already at my goal weight. So it seems like my head is clearly working perfectly.”

“Do you really need to use that whole title? You could just say the idiotic reductive sexist calendar that insults the dignity of this organization and furthers the myth that all firefighters are male,” Hen replies.

“Yeah, that’s not any less words,” Buck says biting the inside of his lip.

“Hen, come on, it’s for charity,” Bobby adds.

“No, Bobby you too?” Hen asks.

“Why not? They say a man is at his sexiest when he reaches fifty.”

“Is that what they say? That’s what they say?” Hen asks.

“Okay, you’re both wrong, alright? You see I think sorority houses all across this great nation are ready for a new Asian sex symbol. It’s our time,” Chim interjects.

“I think it’s great. You know, I like that you’re both going up for it,” Buck says.

“Oh, cause you don’t think that we have a chance,” Bobby says.

“Woah, did I say that? No, I mean sure let's be real, they are only picking one candidate from each station,” Buck begins.

“Okay, that is a beautiful man,” Chimney interrupts pointing behind Buck.

“Where’s the lie? And I like girls,” Hen says as Buck turns around and stops dead in his tracks.

His mouth drops as he sees none other than the guy he kicked out this morning pulling on a tee-shirt that matches his.

“Uh...what the hell is he doing here?” Buck asks.

“That’s Eddie Diaz. New recruit, graduated top of his class just this week. The guys over at station six were dying to have him but I convinced him to join us,” Bobby says.

“What do we need him for?” Buck coughs.

The team laughs and Bobby says, “He’s served multiple tours in Afghanistan as an army medic. Guy’s got a Silver Star. It’s not like he’s wet behind the ears. Come on I’ll introduce you to him.”

No, no, no, Buck thinks.

“He likes to be called Eight Pack,” Bobby adds with a laugh before leading the others over to meet him as Buck hangs back thinking this can’t be happening.

Chim says something to him about the contest but Buck doesn’t hear it.

“Buck,” Bobby calls out to him and waves him towards them and Eddie looks at him, and then his mouth dropping a bit too but he smiles and he almost looks like he’s going to greet him as someone he knows so Buck is quick to jump in with, “Buck, nice to meet you, Eddie.”

Eddie gives him a curious look but smiles and nods, “Nice to meet you too.”

The team begins to filter out and Buck moves to go with them before Eddie grabs his arm and says, “Hey.”

“Stop, Diaz,” Buck says.

“Diaz. This morning and just a second ago it was Eddie. Now it’s Diaz,” Eddie says.

“Diaz, we should pretend it never happened,” Buck says adamantly.

“What never happened? You sleeping with me last night, or you kicking me out this morning? Cause both are fond memories I’d like to hold onto,” Eddie says beaming that same smile that likely got Buck in trouble in the first place.

“No. There will be no memories. I’m not the guy in the bar anymore and neither are you. This can’t exist. You get that right?”

“You took advantage of me and now you want to forget about it,” Eddie says.

“I did not take advantage of you!” Buck exclaims.

“I was drunk, vulnerable, and good looking and you took advantage,” Eddie says grinning.

“Okay, I was the one that was drunk, and you are not that good looking,” Buck lies.

“Well maybe not today, but last night I was very good looking. I had my blue shirt on. My good looking shirt and you took advantage,” Eddie says somehow being modest and immodest at the same time.

“I did not take advantage,” Buck says again.

“Can we take advantage again? Say Friday night?” Eddie asks grinning yet again.

“No, we're co-worker,” Buck says, shaking his head as Eddie looks him over, “And stop looking at me like that,” Buck hisses.

“Like what?” Eddie asks.

“Like you’ve seen me naked,” Buck insists, earning a smirk from Eddie that says what his mouth doesn’t, that he has seen Buck naked. Buck huffs and says, “Diaz this is inappropriate, did that ever occur to you?” Buck asks before storming away.

Soon enough they get called out on a call and Buck somehow gets stuck in the seat directly across from Eddie, and Buck’s never hated the fact that they talk on the job so much as he does now.

“So a Silver Star,” Chim says.

“Yeah,” Eddie says not giving much more.

“You save a platoon or something?” Chim asks further.

“No, no, nothing like that. Uh, just a convoy,” Eddie says.

Buck rolls his eyes cause he really can’t stand this, he doesn’t want to know any more about this guy than he already does.

“Eddie, uh, you hear about the hot firefighter calendar?” Hen asks cause apparently she really hates Buck.

He shoots her a glare as Eddie says, “Sorry, the what?”

“It’s for charity,” Hen says beaming and earning a laugh from Bobby as Buck continues to roll his eyes.

And apparently, his own head gets at Buck too cause before he even realizes it he’s asking, “So is your full name Eduardo?”

Eddie smiles at him a bit and says, “No.”

“People ever call you Diaz?” Buck continues hating himself for it.

“Not if they want me to respond,” Eddie says looking at him pointedly.

“Something’s got to give. We got Cap, Hen, Chimney, Buck. We can’t just call you Eddie,” Buck says for some reason he’ll never know.

“Can’t tell if he’s being serious or not,” Eddie says glancing over at Chim and Hen.

“I like to always operate under the assumption that nothing he says is serious,” Chimney says which completely undermines Buck and Eddie seems to think so too cause he grins at Buck a bit before looking back out of the firetruck.

They get to the auto shop and some guy has an air nozzle embedded in his ass cheek that’s blown him up like a balloon. They move in on him and after their initial examination, Bobby says, “Okay Eddie start a nasal canula. Chimney, get him some morphine.”

“The airs pushing everything out. I can’t even get air through the nostril,” Eddie says.

“Buck, I need you to get a 14-gauge angiocath. We need to start decompressing the pleural cavity,” Bobby says.

Buck grabs one and moves to unbutton his shirt but Eddie’s hands meet him there and he says, “Want me to help?”

“I got it,” Buck hisses at him.

Buck gets the scissors ready to put the guy's shirt when Eddie interjects, “I’d go lower.”

Buck looks up at him and narrows his eyes and says, “What? Um, no. Second intercostal space. Midclavicular line.”

“The chest wall is thinner at the fifth intercostal at the anterior axillary line. There’s a decreased chance of injuring any vital organs. I’ve treated guys with collapsed lungs in combat,” Eddie says,

“Do it,” Bobby says and Buck would like to jab a needle into Eddie’s arm but Eddie ever so politely says, “Please,” when extending his hand to take the angiocath from Buck.

Buck hands it over and sits back with a roll of his eyes preparing to stand up when Eddie says, “Can you help me out with the shirt?”

Buck gives Eddie an annoyed look but leans forward and unbuttons the guy's shirt for him and holds it open as Eddie does the procedure. Buck watches as the guy starts deflating and stares at Eddie for awhile.

They pack the guy up and as Eddie gets congratulations for his save Buck backhandedly says, “Yeah, good call.”

He escapes the day without further confrontation with Eddie and ventures back to Abby’s place. He tries to call her but again, no answer and for a moment he thinks maybe she needs to hear about how he slept with Eddie, maybe that would gain some sort of reaction. But he simply throws his phone to the side instead.

The next day he’s lifting weights when Eddie comes up and starts punching the punching bag behind him and God this working together is going to be a real pain in Buck’s ass he decides.

Buck grabs another weight to put on and then pulls out his phone and takes shots to send in for the calendar. He snaps a picture and Eddie, of course, has something to say about it.

“You’re in the wrong light,” Eddie tells Buck in his good-natured way.

“Some of us don’t need lighting to look good,” Buck shoots back.

Eddie goes back to punching but Chimney decides to take some wisdom from Eddie and asks, “Hey, Eddie, what’d you mean by the wrong light?”

“The light in this room is flat and blue. Makes you look soft. If you want to look lean and muscles to pop, you need warm sidelight. I’ll show you,” Eddie says pulling out his phone.

Buck makes his way over to them sheepishly looking over Eddie’s shoulder at a black and white photo of Eddie holding a very small kitten and yeah, Buck really can’t stand this guy.

“It’s kind of cheating,” Buck interjects, “submitting pictures by a professional photographer.”

Eddie laughs and says, “The photographer’s 12. She’s my niece. She’s a master at the iPhone filters.”

“Your niece did this?” Chimney asks as Buck goes back to lifting his weights.

“Yeah.”

“You think she’d be willing to take my submission pics for me? I’m told I photograph like an Asian Fabio.”

“Sure she would, yeah. Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Chimney asks.

“Ah, you know, you really shouldn’t get his hopes up like that. No offense, Chim,” Buck interrupts.

“No offense taken, Evan,” Chim shoots back and Eddie’s ears seem to perk up a bit at that name.

“Buck, seriously, what’s your problem man?” Eddie says coming up to him.

Buck shoots him a glare and says, “Okay. You. You’re my problem. Your comfort level. You’re not supposed to just walk in here like you’ve been here for years. It’s meant to be a getting to know you period. You’re meant to respect your elders,” Buck says reasoning that he’d dislike Eddie whether he slept with him or not but that’s certainly the main source of his annoyance.

Eddie bites his lip as Chimney voices, “You’re not his elder, Buck.”

Eddie looks over at Chimney for a second before looking back at him and saying, “Look, I in no way meant to be too familiar or step on anybody’s toes. I know you’re going through some personal stuff right now.”

It hits Buck in the chest and his eyes narrow at Eddie hard as he says, “What personal stuff?”

“I know your girlfriend recently broke up with you and you’re coming to terms with that,” Eddie says and Buck is going to kill Chim.

He shoots a look over at Chim and says, “No, I’m not. And she didn’t break up with me. Who told you that?” Though after he realizes how that sounds cause he and Eddie slept together.

Eddie bites his lip and says, “Oh...I...I’m just saying I hear you’re a good guy, and I’m sorry if you’re going through pain, but you don’t need to take it out on me or be threatened by me. We’re on the same team.”

“Why would I be threatened by you?” Buck says shifting on his feet.

Eddie sighs and says, “Exactly. There’s no need to be.”

“We’re not broken up,” Buck shoots at Eddie.

“All right,” Eddie says retreating quickly as Buck huffs and turns back to his weights trying to figure out what any of this means.

On their next call, a guy has fired a grenade into his leg, one he claims is just a practice round that isn’t real. Bobby and Buck take him out of the house and load him into the ambulance where Eddie is standing there waiting.

“Buck,” Bobby says, “I want you to travel with him to the hospital, keep him stable.”

‘Great,’ Buck thinks time alone in a moving box with just Eddie and this patient.

“Copy that, Cap,” Buck grunts.

“Hey,” Bobby says, “You got to learn how to play nice. It’s one team, Buck.”

“Hey, Nash, am I gonna be all right?” The guy asks.

“My boys have got you. But you might want to consider switching to collecting baseball cards after this,” Bobby jokes shutting the ambulance doors on him Eddie and the patient.

Buck tries to make small talk with Eddie cause, well Buck’s chatty and he can’t help himself apparently.

“I guess you’ve seen a lot of shrapnel wounds,” Buck says.

“My share,” Eddie says mutedly.

“You ever seen a guy with a length of rebar stuck through his skull?” Buck asks ready to tell Chim’s story.

“What are we measuring here, Buck?” Eddie asks clearly annoyed with him now.

Buck looks down and is quiet after that, but Eddie gives him direction, annoying Buck further by saying, “You need to change those dressings. They’re soaking through,” and adding, “Hang in there, Charlie. Almost there,” to the patient.

Buck sighs and grabs more dressings and sits down prepared to put more dressings on when Eddie’s hands shoot out and he says, “Hold on. I thought you said this was a practice round.”

“It is,” Charlie replies.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Buck asks sensing the tone in Eddie’s voice.

“You see that cap? Practice rounds have blue caps. Gold caps are live,” Eddie exclaims before pounding on the wall between them and the driver and shouting, “Pull over!”

They park in the hospital parking lot and look at an x-ray on the bomb squads computer and Bobby says, “He’s got a live round embedded in his thigh.”

“Uh, I thought this thing already went off,” Buck says.

“The launch grenade has two components: gunpowder which makes it travel and an explosive charge that makes it go boom,” Eddie explains.

“Okay, so why didn’t this one go boom?”

“It’s fitted with a proximity fuse. It’s a little smart sensor that tells the cap it’s traveled a safe enough distance from the shooter to explode. From his hand to his leg probably wasn’t far enough.”

“Well we can’t bring him inside a hospital full of people, not with that still stuck inside him,” Bobby says.

“We called the military for help,” the bomb squad guy says.

“The military? Uh, can’t you do it? You’re the bomb squad,” Buck says.

“You can’t diffuse a grenade. We need to find someone who knows how to pull that thing out of him without setting it off. They’re sending someone up from Pendleton. Should be here within the hour,” the guy explains.

“He doesn’t have an hour,” Buck says shaking his head.

“I can do it,” Eddie says suddenly from beside him.

Buck looks over him as Eddie continues by saying, “If he doesn’t go to surgery soon, he’ll die.”

“You’ve done this before?” Bobby asks.

“Well, none of the guys I served with were dumb enough to shoot a live round in themselves, but I’m familiar with the ordnance,” Eddie says.

“I’m in,” Buck adds looking over at Bobby.

The suit Eddie and him up though this outfit will hardly protect them from where they’re standing if this thing goes off.

“You get that thing out of him, put it in here,” the bomb squad guy says handing them a small metal box and a grabber.

“Copy that,” Eddie says walking past Buck towards the ambulance and adding, “see you inside.”

“All right, listen, Buck, you don’t have to do this,” Bobby says.

“You think I’m gonna let the new guy have all the fun?” Buck asks, “Besides, you wanted us to bond. We might end up real close,” Buck says climbing into the ambulance.

“How you feeling there Charlie?” Eddie asks.

“Like a world-class idiot. My wife, if she was still alive, she’d be here now saying, I told you so. Well, maybe she’ll be able to tell me in person in about a minute,” Charlie says.

“Well, that conversation’s gonna have to wait. Nobody’s leaving this life tonight,” Buck tells him.

“What branch did you say you were in, Charlie?” Eddie asks.

“I didn’t. I always wanted to be a Marine. I tried to enlist during Nam but I was 4F, an enlarged heart. So instead, I spent the last 40 years teaching seventh grade.”

“See there, Charlie? Not all heroes serve on the battlefield,” Eddie says before looking up at Buck and Buck feels his chest tighten as he catches his eyes.

“You ready?” Eddie asks.

Buck stares into his eyes and nods and says, “Yeah.”

Buck lifts the dressing and huffs, “He’s losing a lot of blood.”

“Keep pressure on it,” Eddie says and Buck places his hands on Charlie’s leg and Eddie adds, “Not too much pressure.”

Eddie clamps down on it with the grabber and says, “There it is.”

“All right,” Buck says worried, “so pull it out. Come on.”

“I got to be careful. The sensor measures the distance traveled based on how many rotations the shell made after the launch. The key is not to turn the shell while we pull it out.”

“Okay, yeah, so don’t turn it. You got this.”

“Gonna have to just a bit,” Eddie says sounding strained as he pulls out the grenade.

His voice is rough and his breathing heavy as he tells Buck to grab the box which Buck does and holds it for him as Eddie lowers it inside.

Once it’s inside Buck relaxes and smiles up at Eddie before the thing rolls and Buck quickly shuts it and looks at Eddie again who looks stress but his eyes connect with his and Buck feels hot all over.

They take Charlie out of the ambulance leaving the grenade inside and roll Charlie towards the hospital passing him off before Eddie turns towards Buck.

Buck looks at him for a moment before saying, “That was amazing. That was such a high. I don’t know why anybody does drugs.”

Eddie stares back at him and smiles a bit wistfully and says, “Yeah.”   
  


“Yeah,” Buck says smiling and then looking down.

“You know, you’re a badass under pressure,” Eddie says.

“Me?” Buck blushes and smiles up at him.

“Hell yeah,” Eddie says looking him over, “You can have my back any day.”

It’s somewhat flirtatious but Buck can also tell the sentiment is real and he continues to blush as he says, “Yeah. Or, you know, you could, you could have mine.”

Eddie laughs softly and grips his hand and says, “Deal.”

Bobby decides that moment to interrupt and they both look at him a little startled as he says, “Nice work, fellas. I’m glad you both made it out of there.”

Buck smiles and looks from Eddie to Bobby and says, “The guy’s a professional, Cap. I was never really worried.”

Just then the ambulance explodes and they all duck, and Buck looks back at Eddie who just sort of smiles and says, “You hungry?”

After that Buck thinks, okay maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be friendly with Eddie.

Another call has them jumping into a pool together after a guy gets his head cemented in a microwave, and Buck really thinks summer makes people stupid.

Later they’re hanging out between calls and his leaning up against the pinball machine while Eddie plays.

“Okay, what about G.I? Like G.I Joe. Hey G.I. You know, that’s a great nickname,” Buck suggests seemingly coming up with anything to not call him Eddie.

“Yeah, you’d like that wouldn't you,” Eddie whispers grinning up him slightly making Buck blush.

“Sounds like gastrointestinal,” Hen interjects.

“Yeah, so I don’t think so,” Eddie sighs and smiles up at Buck.

“All right, everybody, listen up,” Bobby announces coming up the stairs, “I’ve got an announcement to make. I just got off the phone with the people from the calendar, and they have made their choice.”

Bobby glances over at him and Eddie, but Buck just smiles and says, “Well, no hard feelings, no matter who won,” and he bumps his fist against Eddie’s as he smiles.

“That’s good, Buck, cause they didn’t pick you,” Bobby says and Eddie seems to frown a bit.

“Well, it’s obviously a fix,” Buck jokes as Eddie rubs his mouth before Buck claps his hands together and says, “No, congratulations anyway, G.I!”

Eddie laughs before Bobby says, “They didn’t pick him, either.”

Now Buck frowns and looks dumbfounded before saying, “No? You?”

“No,” Bobby says shaking his head and looking over at Chim who looks confused and looks behind himself before saying, “No way. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No. Congratulations, Chim. Or should I say, Mr. April,” Bobby says as they begin clapping for him.

Buck and Eddie walk off after another announcement is made when Athena comes upstairs and kisses Bobby which results in Buck having to fork over cash to Hen who predicted it.

He walks over to the couch with Eddie who leans over and whispers, “No offense to Chim. But I had my money set on you.”

“On me?” Buck asks.

“Yeah, cause I certainly would have chosen you.”

“Eddie, we’re not doing this,” Buck says, “we’re co-workers, nothing more.”

Eddie gives him a small smile before walking off and adding, “For now.”

Buck looks after him and thinks, yeah, he’s really fucked here.


	2. The First Cut is the Deepest

So Eddie settles into the fire station, and Buck mostly does his best to ignore him and just keep on friendly terms with him. Professional friendly terms. But Abby still isn’t answering his texts or calls and Eddie keeps smiling at him, and God if that smile isn’t super inviting and charming. So after a while, Buck kind of does his best to ignore him.

But then one morning they’re both in the showers alone together which really couldn’t be more awkward when you’ve seen each other naked before but under different circumstances.

Buck’s kept his eyes away from Eddie most of the time, but just knowing he’s there makes his mouth really dry.

He wraps a towel around his waist and he sees Eddie doing the same running his fingers through his now wet hair, and Buck thinks he really needs to get out of here but Eddie comes up behind him and says rather abruptly and innocuously, “California has ferryboats.”

Buck stops at that and glances over his shoulder at Eddie and says, “Yeah.”

“I’ve been living here for three months, I didn’t know there were ferryboats,” Eddie comments.

Buck raises his brows and says, “California’s on the ocean,” like it’s a no brainer which it kind of is.

Eddie smiles a bit, “Hence the ferryboats. Now I have to like it here. I wasn’t planning on liking it here. I’m from Texas. I thought I’d dislike everywhere except Texas. But, I have a thing for ferryboats,” Eddie says raising a brow.

Buck looks at him and blinks for a moment before blurting out, “I’m not going out with you.”

Eddie smiles wide at that and says, “Did I ask you to go out with me?” And then a pause before Eddie says, “Do you want to go out with me?”

“I’m not dating you. And I’m definitely not sleeping with you again. You’re my co-worker. Your colleague. Your partner,” Buck says shrugging his shoulders.

Eddie rolls his eyes a bit and shrugs his head a bit, “I’m your sister, I’m your daughter.”

“You’re sexually harassing me,” Buck shoots at him.

“I’m talking to you in the showers,” Eddie retorts.

“Look, I’m drawing a line. The line is drawn. I’m not crossing that line,” Buck says shifting on his feet.

But then Eddie grins a bit and tilts his head while looking into Buck’s eyes and says, “So this line...is it imaginary or do I need to get you a marker?”

Buck pauses for a moment staring back at him before he darts forward smashing his mouth against Eddie’s and pressing him up against the shower wall.

Eddie’s arms immediately came to wrap around Buck’s waist as he kissed him back. Buck slid his hands up to knot in Eddie’s hair, while Eddie’s moved up along his back before flipping them and pressing Buck against the wall. Buck groaned softly into Eddie’s mouth before he heard footsteps and shoved Eddie away from him. He coughed and tightened his towel on his waist as Eddie stared back at him, his hair now askew and his lips now slightly red.

Buck gave him a short glance as one of the other firefighters walked in gave them a short nod and turned on the shower. Buck quickly hurried off while Eddie shouted to him as he left, “So we’ll talk later?”

The morning after that starts alright, no calls and they’re all just cleaning around the firehouse, Buck is assigned to cleaning the locker room windows and Eddie luckily is far away from him doing truck maintenance.

Suddenly though the whole ground, the station, everything starts rocking around him and suddenly he’s hyperaware that Eddie’s under the firetruck and he begins to scramble to get out of the locker room. Just then the glass of the locker room shatters and the rocking knocks Buck off his feet and onto the ground. He struggles to get up and shouts out Eddie’s name watching as Hen narrowly saves him from a falling hose. Hen pulls Eddie up and starts pushing him to safety as the extinguishers fall making the entire area filled with a cloud that disturbs his vision. He stumbles forward and hears Eddie shout his name and as he makes it through the cloud, he feels someone grip his arm and looks up to see Eddie’s eyes through the fog and pulling him through.

The shaking finally stops and Buck notices him and Eddie are both still gripping onto each other and Buck is quick to let go of him as the alarms start blaring cause of course shit hits the fan after that.

Bobby tells them to get in the truck cause they’re just going to get a head start and go looking for somewhere to help. They pass several wrecked buildings and Buck watches out the window when he notices Eddie glaring down at his phone in the seat diagonal from him.

Buck swallows and asks, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, there’s no service,” Eddie says somewhat annoyed, his eyes not leaving his phone. He lifts his head and shakes his head no visibly annoyed and says, “Texts won’t even get through,” his eyes flicking to Buck for only a moment.

“Who are you trying to get a hold of?” He asks.

Eddie looks up at him speculatively and his eyes grow soft as he says, “My son. I’m trying to reach my son.”

It takes Buck off guard cause he’d never have guessed that Eddie has a kid. And Buck honestly doesn’t know what to make of it and he doesn’t know what to make of Eddie either, even less than he did before which is saying a lot.

“Whoa, you got a kid?” Buck asks though.

“Christopher,” Eddie says looking down at his phone, as a small smile comes to his lips just from saying his name, he turns his phone towards Buck to show him a picture as he adds, “He’s seven.”   
  


Buck can’t help but lean forward to take a good look at the picture a smile coming to his face as he looks at the picture of Eddie with the cutest little boy with classes and a wide bright smile. He feels Eddie’s eyes trained on him and Buck smiles up at him and comments, “And super adorable, I, uh, I love kids,” he says truthfully.

Eddie’s eyes take him a bit speculatively before a small smile comes to his face again and he looks back down at his phone and says, “I love this one,” giving a small headshake before adding, “I’m all he’s got. His mother’s not in the picture.”

Eddie diverts his gaze out the window as Buck tilts his head at him and says, “He’s at school?”

Eddie’s gaze is on his lap, his lip pulled in as he looks up at Buck and nods lightly and says, “Yeah.”

Buck keeps eye contact with him as he says, “Hey, I’m sure he’s fine.”

Eddie gives a small nod that betrays that he doesn’t really believe Buck.

Buck’s mind races as he thinks about the fact that Eddie’s a dad, one who’s happy to be one, and cares which is so different from his own father mostly absent from his life, and his mother who wasn’t much of a mother even before she got Alzheimer's and only occasionally remembered who he was. Sometimes that’s almost better though, that she doesn’t know who he is. His sister’s no help, he hasn’t seen her in years since she got married, and for a short time when Buck had to take their mother from Pennsylvania to California after it was clear Maddie wasn’t going to take care of her. Or rather Doug wasn’t going to let her, but either way, it was now Buck’s burden to bear alone.

It certainly makes it harder for Buck to not like Eddie. While for some the presence of a kid might kill the attraction, if anything it’s something that helps Eddie in his eyes. It shows him another side to the guy he had a one night stand with and now apparently makes out within the showers cause he can’t help himself. 

They pull up to a high rise hotel that’s tilted and about ready to crumble, and they all exit the truck and stare up at it somewhat wide-eyed.

“You guys ever deal with anything like this before?” Eddie asks.

“No,” Bobby answers.

Parts of the building's foundation are wrecked, there’s a mattress in a nearby bush, and little paper falls from the sky.”

A crew is placing small support beams up against the building to hold it up but they seem unlikely to help all that much.

“They seriously think that’s gonna hold it up?” Buck asks.

“Let’s go find the incident commander,” Bobby says leading them that way.

There she explains the situation to them and comments on how the reinforced steel is the only thing keeping the building up.

“One good aftershock and the whole thing could come down,” she says.

“A high-rise is supposed to be the safest place to be when an earthquake hits,” Buck comments.

“Not when you’re built right on top of a fault line. This quake was a 7.1,” the incident commander says.

“Northridge was just a 6.7,” Hen adds.

“7.1, that makes the largest in SoCal in 20 years. And the last one was in Joshua Tree,” Chimney continues.

“How many crews do you have in there?” Bobby asks.

“Not enough,” she says, “we’ve put in a request for Heavy Rescue 3, but they’re on their way to a freeway collapse. We can use every hand we can get,” she tells Bobby.

“Okay, listen up,” Bobby starts, “Here’s how you make it to the end of the day. You don’t worry about the things that you can’t do anything about. Focus on one task at a time. I can’t order you guys to go inside that building, and I’m not gonna judge you if you decide not to.”

They stare and Buck knows he’s going in but he thinks of Eddie and his kid, but then remind himself of the bomb and how Eddie had jumped into that situation without much thought, and he’s further amazed at Eddie’s bravery.

“Hen, you got a kid, so…,” Chimney starts.

“Yeah. And I’d hope if someone whose job it was to save him had the chance, they’d do it. No matter what.”

Buck watches as Eddie looks to Bobby and asks, “Where do you want us?”

But then a police officer comes around to them and says, “Hey. You guys will want to see this.”

They rush to the other side of the building and see a man smashed up against the window shouting and Chimney says, “We could set up a bag street-side in case that window gives.”

“Nobody works under that side of the building. Somebody’s gonna have to get him from the inside,” Bobby says.

“Buck,” Eddie says gaining his attention before saying, “You say that’s the 11th floor?”

“I would,” Buck replies, “I bet we could take the ladder to that fourth floor. Cut the distance in half.”

Eddie gives a small nod and then looks at Bobby who says, “Head on up.”

They dress down to their climbing gear and exchange some of their equipment before the ladder is extended to the fourth-floor window and they begin climbing up, Buck right behind Eddie.

They get to the window and Eddie smashes through it with the window breaker and pushes the remaining bits out of the way.

Buck’s mind goes to Eddie’s son and he can still somehow tell that Eddie’s stressed about it and says, “After Northridge, FEMA spent $200 million retrofitting every school in the LAUSD. Ceiling tiles, lighting fixtures...Eddie, your kid is in the safest place he can be.”

Eddie looks back at him for a moment before shooting him a caviler smile and saying, “Thought that was a high-rise.”

Buck smiles a bit as Eddie uses his own words against him and climbs through the window, with Buck following his lead popping into the stairwell.

They begin their long climb up the stairwell and it’s quiet for a while before Eddie says, “So, we’re kissing but we’re not dating?”

Buck can’t help but smile a bit and sigh as he walks up the rubbled staircase, “I knew that was gonna come up.”

Eddie’s smile breaks through the darkroom and he says, “Don’t get me wrong. I like the kissing. I’m all for the kissing. More kissing I say,” Eddie smirks.

“I have no idea what that was about,” Buck sighs and he really doesn’t know what it was about.

“Well is it gonna happen again?” Eddie asks and adds, “Cause if it is I need to bring breath mints,” before he quips, “and a condom in my wallet,” saying this in a whisper.

Buck smiles and shakes his head lightly and says, “Shut up.”

Eddie grins and they return to silence as they walk up the staircase holding onto the railing as the metal around them creaks and groans.

“It’s only six flights,” Eddie sighs, “Not exactly Mount Everest,” Eddie says shining his light up the staircase.

Its starting wear on Buck a bit though it might be some nerves and he pants softly, “Yeah, except Everest might not tip over and crush you like a bug.”

Then the building rattles and shakes shoving Buck against one of the railings and Eddie stops and looks down at him, “You good, Buck?”

“Yeah,” Buck sighs.

“Let’s keep going,” Eddie says and Buck thinks there’s really no quit in this guy whether they’re climbing up this mountain of a building or if he’s asking Buck out for the fiftieth time.

They finally make it up to the floor and Eddie opens the door and they stand in the doorway looking down the hallway.

“Alright,” Buck says now standing in front of Eddie.

“You ready?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah, on three,” Buck says, “One, two, three,” he counts swinging his body to the opposite side of the hallway, with Eddie following right behind.

He presses up against the wall and starts inching his way down the hallway with Eddie following close behind. Buck laughs softly while Eddie shouts out, “Hello! Hello! LAFD!”

They start to hear shouts back by a male and female voice coming from the same room that says, “In here! In here! In here!”

“This one here,” Eddie says when they reach the room and passes Buck the law to cut through the locked door before they breakthrough.

“Hello! LAFD!” Eddie says.

“We’re in here!” The man and woman both shout.

Buck goes into the room first and falls into it catching onto the wall as the tilt of the hotel makes moving difficult.

Eddie catches his eye from the doorway telling him he’s got him with the rope with the nod of his head.

Buck nods back and lets go of the wall his body falling further into the hotel room as the woman shouts, “Oh, God.”

He catches onto the bar inside the room and the girl says, “Thank God. Please, please, get me out of here.”

She’s on the ground next to one of the pillars in the room, “Whoa, whoa, ma'am, I...I need you to just sit tight,” Buck warns, “I will come, and I will get you. Okay?”

“Okay,” she replies.

Buck looks back at Eddie and nods for him to throw him the rope as the man pressed against the window complains, “Uh, no offense, but I think this might be a situation where women and children first does not apply.”

“Did you just say no offense?” The woman hisses, “Everything about you is offensive.”

Eddie enters the room and passes Buck and prepares to make his way to the window.

“First date?” Buck asks.

“Yeah, God, he wishes,” the woman answers, “Amazingly, that sweaty, fat, pock-marked pig is married with five kids. Didn’t stop him from asking me to shower with him.”

Buck frowns at that, as does Eddie as Buck says, “Man, have you not watched the news at all over the past year?” 

“All right, you’re good,” Eddie tells him once they’re secured on the rope and Buck replies, “All right and begins moving deeper into the room.

“Seriously, catch up with the times,” Eddie adds to the guy against the window.

“All right, fine, so I’m a dinosaur. A forgotten relic of a forgotten age. For God’s sake, just get me the hell out of here. Hurry,” the man says as Eddie moves in on him.

“I’m gonna throw you a rope, okay?” Buck asks the woman.

“Okay.”

“I’m gonna need you to try and secure yourself.”

“Okay.”

“You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“All right,” Buck says tossing her the rope as she ties it around herself.

The glass begins to creak and Eddie shouts, “Don’t move!”

They all freeze and Buck looks up as Eddie adds, “Don’t breathe.”

The glass is beginning to crack as Eddie tells the man, “All right, I’m gonna come around to you. You need to stay totally still, sir. Don’t even talk.” 

“Oh god,” the guy says as the glass cracks some more, “Please don’t let this be the end.”

“All right, I’m gonna tie this webbing around you, and we’re gonna get you away from the glass,” Eddie tells the man as Buck begins to pull the woman towards him with the rope.

“Okay. Okay,” he whispers to her, just as the whole building starts shaking, “Aftershock! Aftershock!” Buck shouts.

“Help me!” The woman shouts as the man begins yelling, “Oh, God!”

Eddie’s ready to grab the man when suddenly the glass breaks and Buck hears Eddie shout but it sounds like white noise loud in his ears as he gasps the rope suddenly giving and the woman falling.

“Eddie,” Buck shouts, as she tumbles and Eddie lunges just in time to catch her hand as she tumbles out the window.

“Grab my other hand,” Eddie tells her as Buck tries to get traction and pull Eddie and girl up. 

Buck manages to get them both up much to his relief, his hand gripping Eddie’s arm the second he’s near him again. Eddie looks him in the eyes and nods gently, “I’m okay, Buck. Okay?”

Buck knows he shouldn’t care so much. He cares for all his team members, but the whole thing has him still in the moment. Eddie keeps his eye and says, “You’re okay, I’m okay.”

Buck nods lightly and says, “You’re okay, I’m okay, she’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Eddie says and then Buck can move again and follows Eddie’s lead back to the stairwell while helping the girl whose name is Ali.

“That’s it. You’re doing great,” Buck tells her as they climb down the staircase again and jokes with her, “You’ve, uh, you’ve done this before haven’t you?”

“Yeah. It was, uh, my major at the Rhode Island School of Design. Sorry. Sarcasm is my fallback for pretty much everything,” she says.

“I totally get it,” Buck replies as Eddie reaches for Ali’s hand says, “I got you.”

“Okay,” she whispers before looking down the stairwell and asking, “You think he’ll still be on the sidewalk when we get down there?”

“No,” Buck says, “And we’re not going out that side anyway.”

Eddie frowns and says, “Let’s hustle up you two. We don’t want to be here for the next aftershock.”

“Wait, what do you mean, the next aftershock?” Ali asks.

“Come on,” Eddie says extending his hand again.

She takes it this time and they keep moving downward, walking on the railing as the staircase is covered in rubble.

“You’re going to be fine. He’s right behind you,” Eddie assures her.

“Okay,” Ali says before Eddie moves further down before stopping and when Buck looks he sees the entire staircase is blocked.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Buck huffs.

“We’re not getting out this way,” Eddie says.

“Now what?” Ali asks.

Eddie shines his light upwards and says, “We go back up.”

“Back up?” Ali fumes.

Suddenly Bobby comes over the radio and says, “Ladder 118, respond. This is Captain Nash. I need a headcount.”

“Ladder 118 responding. Diaz, Buckley, we’re good, Cap,” Eddie responds over the radio.

The others on the team respond, all except Hen who the Captain calls for multiple times without response. They both still, Eddie and Buck exchanging a look as Ali asks, “Is that a friend of yours?”

Eddie just sighs and says, “Let’s keep moving.”

Hen has a kid like Eddie has a kid, and Buck’s worried cause they have to climb back up, they have to get out of here. He’s determined more than ever to get Eddie home to his kid.

They climb the floors again and get to another floor with Buck leading Ali out into the hall, his hand extended to her, “Here you go,” he says, “There you go. Easy.”

“Miss, there’s this egress on the north stairwell of this floor,” Eddie says.

“What if it’s blocked, too?” Ali asks, “Can't you guys get a ladder into one of the windows?”

“It’s too risky. Building shifted too much.”

“No, we got this, Abby. We’ll get you out of here,” Buck tells her.

“Ali,” she says.

“What?” Buck asks.

“You called me Abby. My name’s Ali.”

Buck goes still and he catches Eddie’s eye and he looks uncomfortable and Buck is too as he coughs, “Uh, yeah. Sorry. Um, Abby is my...It’s complicated,” Buck says as he thinks of Eddie, cause it didn’t use to be complicated.

“Isn’t it always?” Ali asks.

“Uh, she’s in Europe. She’s traveling. For the first time, I’m glad she’s not around. I don’t need the worry,” he sighs.

Buck thinks of her and he feels guilty, cause he should right? He made out with Eddie in the showers this morning, slept with him at one point.

Eddie’s silent and if anything acting distant as Ali goes on to say, “Having someone to worry about sounds nice, actually.”

Buck turns and notices Ali stopped by a maids cart opening a bottle of liquor and drinking from it. He taps Eddie on the shoulder and he turns to look at her too. 

“All I do is work,” Ali adds before looking over at Buck and Eddie who are staring and asks, “What? It’s after 5:00. It’s not like it slowed us down.”

Eddie and Buck both sigh and get back to working on making their way through the blocked area.

Suddenly Buck hears someone and shouts, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.”

Then the voice calls out, “Is anyone there?”

“You guys hear that?” Buck asks.

“Help! Is anyone there?” The voice calls again.

Buck and Eddie break open the door and Buck grips Eddie’s hand as he slides into the room before following after him where they find a man trapped under a cart. 

“I knew help would come,” the man sighs.

“That’s right. We’re here, we got you, buddy,” Eddie tells him.

“All right, don’t move. Just relax, okay? I need you to stay as still as possible,” Buck says to him before looking at Eddie, “Okay, we got to roll him over. On three. One, two, three.”

They roll him together and the man screams out in pain as they get him on his side.

“I...uh, I soiled myself,” the man says miserably.

“Forget about that, okay?” Eddie replies.

“Not my proudest moment,” he says as Eddie takes off his shoes and socks and presses. The man groans and Buck and Eddie exchange a look and a head shake before Buck slides to the other side of the room.

“Can you wiggle your toes for me?” Eddie asks the man.

The man gives a shake of the head and wines as Buck looks for something to stabilize the man's spine. 

Eddie joins him and says, “Numbness in his legs, loss of bladder control. Spinal injury. We got to move him out now.”

“On what? We don’t have a backboard, and every millimeter counts,” Buck says as Eddie looks around the room for something to use.

“You see anything?” Eddie asks.

Buck’s about to answer no when Ali shouts to them, “Guys. What about this?” While holding up an ironing board, and it really is the perfect solution.

“Ironing board,” she says with a grin.

“Could work, but how are we gonna get him down the stairwell?” Eddie asks.

Then Buck thinks of the elevator and says, “Maybe we don’t use the stairwell.”

They go to the elevator pushing the doors open and looking down at the deep tunnel going down.

“At least we’re not blocked by any debris,” Eddie sighs looking down.

“Or an elevator,” Ali adds as they look up at where the elevator is, and she asks, “Um, how much do you think that weighs?”

“2,500. 3,000 pounds?” Eddie answers.

“I like our chances,” Buck says ever the optimist.

“Yeah,” Eddie sighs.

Eddie starts descending down the elevator with the hotel employee, Batari, with Buck watching with Ali.

“How you feeling, Batari?” Eddie asks getting a thumbs up in reply.

“How you feeling?” Buck asks Ali.

“Not dead yet,” she replies sarcastically. 

“Yeah,” Buck sighs not taking his eyes off of Eddie.

All Buck can do is pray that this works, pray that they make it out, that they both do.

“You guys are doing great. You’re almost there,” Buck shouts down to them.

“Eight more feet, Buck,” Eddie calls back up to him.

Eddie keeps going down before calling back again, “Get down here Buck.”

“All right, on my way,” he says before looking over at Ali and asking, “You ready?”

“Okay,” Ali sighs.

Buck grabs ahold of Ali as Eddie pushes open the elevator doors down below, and Buck starts making his way down. Buck assures Ali that everything is okay when suddenly the build starts shaking again.

The elevator above them starts dropping and Buck looks down and shouts to Eddie, “Eddie, kick that door open.”

He sees Eddie’s eyes wide as he looks up at him and watches as Eddie kicks open the door and swing Batari through the elevator doors.

Eddie’s pulled himself in so at the very least Buck knows he’s safe as he descends down and he hears Eddie shout up to him, “Let’s go, Buck! Move your ass!”

  
  


“All right, here we come,” Buck shouts back just as they swing into the floor and the elevator crashes down below.

Buck lays on the floor and feels Eddie touch his back and he looks up at Eddie taking in the worried look on his face. He pants but smiles up at him as Eddie looms above him, “I told you I liked our chances,” Buck says to him earning a small laugh from Eddie as he pats Buck’s cheek before Buck clears his throat cause they still have a job and there’s Ali and Batari watching.

Buck stands and says, “We better get going, this thing could all crumble soon.”

“Yeah,” Eddie nods and so they make the rest of the climb down and pass Batari and Ali off to the paramedics just before they start evacuating the building.

But Hen. Hen is still missing, she’s still in there somewhere, and Bobby and Chim aren’t going to quit looking, and so Buck’s going back. He tells Eddie so.

Eddie nods and says, “You’re right. Come on let's go.”

Buck looks at him and nods, “Yeah, let's go.”

They work their way to the parking garage just as Bobby and Chim have gotten some room to possibly get Hen out from beneath the building.

“Looks like we got here just in time, then,” Buck announces as him and Eddie come around the corner.

“Yeah, seems like they were planning on having all the fun without us,” Eddie grins beside him.

“Heard over the radio you needed some equipment and available hands down here,” Buck smiles.

“You know you guys are disobeying a direct order,” Bobby says.

“And they’ll be duly reprimanded, as soon as we’re done here,” the incident captain says coming around the corner to join them with a group of other firefighters.

“Looks like you’re gonna have to reprimand yourself, as well,” Bobby jokes.

“I’m seriously considering it,” she says, “Your people are very persuasive and persistent. One-shot, Captain. Either way, no one’s coming to rescue us,” she says.

So they all work together to clearing the rubble out of the way in hopes Hen is down there still alive and can come through.

A dog runs through first just before Hen arrives carrying a little girl on her back. The team all-embracing her when she’s out.

Buck and Eddie go to the truck and begin removing their gear though they’re still covered in dust from the building. Buck feels his phone buzz in his pocket and immediately pulls it out and turns to Eddie, “Hey. Service,” he announces.

Eddie immediately scrambles for his phone and Buck watches as he quickly begins texting. They take quick showers once back at the station and Eddie says, “Hey...uh Buck...I...I’m glad we both got out of there today.”

Buck smiles a bit and nods and says, “Me too.”

He drys off alongside Eddie and then says, “Hey, uh Eddie...let me uh drive you to get Christopher. Is he still at school?”

Eddie looks at him and says, “Yeah...and yeah, you would do that?”

“Yeah. You should get to see him as soon as possible and get to focus on him. I can drive you there and get you guys both home. I know you got dropped off this morning by your grandmother.”

“Thank...thank you, Buck,” Eddie says stepping towards Buck who takes a step back and gives a cordial nod, “It’s not a problem. But if you keep trying to kiss me in the showers, I’m going to have to start taking them at home.”

Eddie laughs softly and says, “Yeah alright.”

So they take Buck’s car to Christopher’s school and Buck watches as Eddie races out of the car and up the steps and into the school to meet Christopher. He gets a better look at him and sees the little boy cute as ever has crutches. He watches as Eddie lifts him into a tight embrace spinning him in his arms and clutching him to his chest.

And Buck...he smiles and he can’t stop watching them, and he feels that tightness in his chest.

They come out together with Eddie holding Christopher on his hip and standing at the passenger side and says, “Christopher, this is my friend, Buck, from work. Buck this, is Christopher.”

Buck smiles at him and says, “Hi, Christopher. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Buck,” he says the smile never leaving his face, and Buck already adores this little boy in Eddie’s arms who doesn’t stop smiling.

“Hectic day of school huh Christopher?” Buck asks.

“Yeah, it was crazy. Everything was shaking like one of those massager chairs,” Christopher giggles.

“Our day was crazy too, but I wasn’t scared one bit, cause your dad’s a great partner you know?” Buck says to him.

“Yeah, dad keeps everyone safe, he’s the best,” Christopher replies.

“But you probably taught him didn’t you?” Buck asks finding the conversation easier than most, he always does connect well with kids, “You taught him all about being strong?”

Christopher giggles and says, “Maybe.”

“Maybe, ah come on Christopher, I know it was you. Think you can teach me a bit some time?”

“Yeah, okay, Buck,” Christopher smiles.

“Okay, but Christopher, now it’s time for the real stuff. Who’s better Iron Man or Captain America?”

They spend the car ride debating the merits of Captain America vs. Iron Man, with Christopher arguing for Iron Man and Buck for Captain America.

“Come on Christopher, Captain America is superior he was frozen in ice and has a shield.”

“Iron Man has a suit Buck, and he can fly.”

“But Captain America doesn’t even need a suit, he’s just strong and awesome on his own.”

“But Iron Man has Jarvis,” Christopher giggles.

“Oh come on Christopher, you just like Iron Man cause your dad is a stronger looking Tony Stark.”

“And you probably only like Captain America cause you look like Steve Rogers and his sidekick's name is Bucky,” Eddie adds to the debate making Christopher laugh.

“Uh, duh, you see the parallels between me and Cap are way stronger than any of the parallels between your dad and Iron Man, so come on Christopher. Join the good side,” Buck argues.

Christopher just laughs at him and Eddie reaches over and touches Buck’s wrist at a stoplight and catches his eye. It’s the soft kind of look that Buck isn’t sure he’s ever seen before. One that makes his heart pound in his chest and makes his cheeks warm.

He nearly misses the light and someone honks at them which makes Christopher laugh more.

Buck pulls up to their house and Eddie gets Christopher out of the car and leans over and says, “Just...wait here Buck.”

Buck nods cause Eddie’s, God Eddie’s looking at him like that again and he...he can’t say no for some reason when he’s looking at him like that. It’s not even panic that comes over him despite his heart racing. It’s a sort of calm, not the frenzied high he felt from taking out the bomb or during the earthquake. But still...a high, but one that just washes over him like waves.

Eddie gets ready to take Christopher inside but Christopher turns beaming at him and says, “Bye, Bucky it was nice to meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you too Christopher,” Buck says as Eddie walks him inside.

A minute later Eddie comes out of the house and to the door and says, “Buck...thank you.”

“It was no trouble, Eddie. You…you’ve got a great kid.”

“I...I do. But Buck, really, thank you,” he says.

Buck looks at Eddie and sighs, “Anytime, Eddie. Anytime...I should...go though.”

Eddie nods lightly and then says, “I’ll see you at work then.”

“You will,” Buck says as Eddie smiles one last time and turns around and runs into the house to be with Christopher.

And Buck...he can’t fall for Eddie...but...maybe he really does need to end things with Abby...cause even if he’s not going to do anything with Eddie. He won’t. He won’t...But even still...he needs to end it with Abby, cause just looking at Eddie he feels something more than he does with Abby now and...maybe even then...


	3. Winning the Battle, Losing the War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: There is a mention of a rape victim they save at the very start of the chapter

He calls Abby fully intending to break up with her but as usual, he doesn’t get a response and he’s not sure it’s something that can be said over text or a message left on an answering machine. But he takes the first step. He moves out of her place and gets a new one, just for him. It doesn’t feel like home any more than Abby’s did, even after he gets his stuff in place. It’s barebones, lacking in personality. The apartments nice and it suits him, but Buck, he doesn’t have much personal stuff to make it feel lived in. No pictures to hang, no little trinkets that he cherishes and make it feel homey.

He’s in a sort of piss poor mood when the day starts, perhaps so poor that Eddie doesn’t dare broach him with the subject of maybe going out, which he’s done every single day. And yeah, it’s kind of getting harder to say no because Eddie is charming, and maybe Buck really does kind of want to go out with him, deep, deep down.

The first call of the day makes it that much worse when they’re called in the early morning to the park for a possible rape victim.

The girl is beaten all over, there’s blood everywhere and she’s barely breathing, but she is, and she’s got blood under her nails to tell that she fought back tooth and nail against whatever asshole did this to her.

It doesn’t help that she’s so small, five feet tall maybe, roughly the size of his sister Maddie, and it makes something inside his chest burn. They’re getting her stabilized at the scene when she starts choking and something comes out of her mouth and it looks odd.

“Buck, what is that?” Bobby asks while Eddie continues to work on her.

He gets pickups and grabs what she choked up off the ground beside her and goes pale and mutters, “Oh...my God...she bit it off.”

“Bit off what Buck?” Bobby asks.

“It’s his...the guy who did this...it’s his...Penis,” Buck stumbles and swallows, and he feels further pride for this small girl who kicked this guys ass, cause the guy certainly deserves it and will likely be found for sure.

“Ah...Hen get a cooler over here,” Bobby says.

So Buck has to put the thing in the cooler and Bobby says, “Buck, ride with Eddie to the hospital with her and the…,” Bobby says stalling.

“The penis, Captain?” Chim asks raising his brows.

“Yeah,” the Captain says.

“And...what am I supposed to do with the Penis?” Buck asks.

“Well if you don’t know…,” Chim begins before Bobby shakes his head and says, “Just keep it on ice, and then give it to the people at the hospital,” Bobby says.

Buck sighs and gets in the ambulance with Eddie and Eddie says, “She’s a real fighter this one.”

“Her name's Alison,” Buck says somewhat dazed.

“Alison,” Eddie repeats before looking over at Buck, “You okay?” He asks.

“Yeah, it’s just I have a sister...she’s her size and...it bugs me,” Buck huffs.

“I get it,” Eddie nods, “I have three sisters. But Alison here, she really stuck it to him I mean,” Eddie says eyes darting towards Buck’s cooler.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Well, talk about taking a bite out of crime. She really kicked his ass, and she’ll, she’ll be okay Buck,” Eddie says to him.

Buck gives a soft laugh and says, “Yeah. She’s a fighter, so she should make it out okay. It just...sucks this sort of thing happened to her...happens to anybody.”

Eddie nods and the ambulance stops and the doors open and Chim says, “Whatcha doing there Buck?”

“Oh, you know, just sitting here with my Penis,” Buck quips helping Eddie get Alison out of the ambulance and passing her and the specimen off to the doctors.

“Ah, so the usual,” Chim says as Buck shakes his head and goes back to the firetruck getting a soft clap on the back from Eddie.

At the very least their next calls are more upbeat or just stupid than downright depressing. They rescue a security guard stuck between two buildings before moving on to help some girl who decided to put her head in the tailpipe of a truck and got her head stuck. So a classic.

The girls are all drunk despite it being early morning and are hooting and hollering as soon as they walk in and make it to the back where the girl's head is indeed stuck in the tailpipe of some guys truck.

The guy explains as Buck gets underneath the truck to get a better look that the girl did this out of her own free will.

“You dared her to,” her friend says.

“We were flirting,” the guy complains back.

“Your idea of flirting with a girl her to stick her head in your tailpipe?”

“Oh man,” Buck laughs from underneath the vehicle as Chimney asks, “Hey Jennifer, how you feeling?”

“Uh, pretty good actually. Except for this whole, you know, ginormous tailpipe on my head” she says.

Eddie passes Buck a sharpie and he marks where her head it on the tailpipe with it.

“Hey, Jennifer,” Hen says, “You’re gonna feel me poking around. We’re just checking you out okay?”

“All right,” the girl says.

“Why is this tailpipe so large?” Chimney asks.

“It’s custom,” the truck owner answers.

“Where’d she get these bruises on her arm?” Bobby asks.

“That wasn’t me,” the guy says.

“It’s from the bull,” her friend supplies, “She rode it like five times.”

“There’s no way we’re gonna get a collar on her,” Chim says.

“I got it,” Hen replies.

“Get me out of this thing,” the girl finally complains.

“These things are meant to increase the power to the engine,” Buck explains.

“Yep,” the truck owner says proudly.

“TSA 230 saw should do the job,” Bobby supplies.

“Oh, yeah, like a knife through butter,” Buck replies.

“Chim,” Cap calls as Chimney is already coming back with the thing and says, “Way ahead of you, Cap,” passing the saw and other equipment to Bobby.

“What?” The truck owner says, “No, I spent 1,200 bucks on that tailpipe.”

“You might want to close your eyes during this part,” Bobby muses.

Then one of the girl's friends comes up to Buck pressing against him and says, “Just type your number into my phone and I’ll text you so you have mine.”

“Thanks, but I actually have...uh work to do an I need to focus right now so my captain doesn’t cut your friends head off?”

The other girl comes up to Eddie and asks, “Do you have Snapchat? And uh, I don’t think I’m what you’re looking for, I have a son.”

“That’s great, so do I,” she shrugs and Buck glares back towards her shortly before Eddie is coming up to his side again bumping his shoulder against his.

“All right, what say we move the peanut gallery a few steps over this way,” Chim says.

Eddie and Buck watch as Bobby saws the tailpipe off and pulls the girl from underneath the car.

“We need some lube,” Buck says.

The same girl who asked him out shouts, “I have some,” and comes up and hands it to him but not before slamming her mouth against his and saying, “Thanks for saving my friend.”

Buck shakes his head and takes it over and squirts it down into the tailpipe catching Eddie’s eye over the top as he looks bothered an annoyed.

They slowly pull the tailpipe off her head and she takes one look at Eddie and says, “Wow, you’re really hot.”

“Would you like us to transport you to the hospital? Get checked out.” Hen asks.

“She just needs another drink,” the friend who kissed Buck shouts.

“No, what she needs is to go home. All three of you do, in a cab,” Bobby says before looking down at the girl and saying, “Listen to me. When you sober up, you feel like you have a headache or blurry vision, or you feel confused, you got to get yourself to a hospital, you understand?”

The girl just starts giggling as Buck shakes his head and begins to take his suspenders off his shoulders as Eddie walks up beside him and says, “You make out with bystanders now?”

Buck scoffs and says, “What are you jealous?”

“I don’t get jealous,” Eddie lies.

Buck sighs and says, “And what about the other lie you told about not dating cause you have a son.”

“It’s not a lie,” Eddie says.

“Then what exactly have you been bothering me about for a month now?” Buck asks.

“You’re the exception to the rule,” Eddie supplies.

Buck shakes his head and says, “While I agree that girl was not good enough to be in the same space of a child as perfect as Christopher, I shouldn’t be an exception. Besides, there’s nothing here Eddie. We had... we had sex once.”

“And we kissed in the showers,” Eddie adds.

“And we kissed in the showers, once,” Buck mimics.

“No, come on, seriously, go out with me,” Eddie insists.

“No.”

“Come on this is a dangerous job. What if I died? How would you feel if I died and you didn’t get the chance to go out with me?” Eddie asks.

“Get over yourself already,” Buck huffs.

“Oh, come one.”

Buck shakes his head and says, “It’s just the chase isn’t it?”

“What?”

“The thrill of the chase. I’ve been wondering to myself, why are you so hellbent on getting me to go out with you? You know you’re my co-worker, you know I keep saying no. It’s the chase.”

Eddie thinks on this before saying, “Well it is fun isn’t it?”

“You see. This is a game to you. But not to me,” Buck says.

Eddie opens his mouth to reply as his phone rings and he looks down at it frowns and pauses before walking past him and answering, “Hello? What? Which one?”

Eddie races off after that and Buck hurries and follows after him and says, “Eddie? What’s wrong?”

“Something happened at my Abuela’s when she’s watching Christopher, I have to go to the hospital,” he says hurriedly.

“Okay, we’ll get to the station and I’ll drive you, Eddie.”

Eddie looks at him and nods and Buck pats his shoulder as they ride back to the station. They inform Bobby where they’re going and Buck drives Eddie to the hospital.

“You don’t have to come in,” Eddie says.

“No, I’ll go with you,” Buck says, cause he honestly wants to make sure Christopher’s okay as well.

They hurry inside and get on the elevator and when the elevator reaches the floor Buck is right behind Eddie as he rushes off the elevator.

Eddie looks back at him and points forward and says, “My aunt.”

Eddie continues to walk while Buck follows and calls out to his aunt, “Tia. Que pasó? Is Christopher okay?”

Eddie’s aunt sighs and hugs Eddie and says, “Yes. You mean Prince Charming, hmm? He’s peachy,” and gestures over to where Christopher is making a gaggle of nurses laugh.

It makes Buck smile and he just watches for a moment takes in the little boy's constant joy.

Eddie smiles back at Christopher and then looks back at his aunt as she says, “It’s your Abuela. She broke her hip.”

“What? How?” Eddie asks.

“She was out back on the steps and calling him to come inside. She lost her balance. Christopher called 911. The rescue got there really quick.”

That makes Buck smile more, the idea that Christopher was able to do that so well.

“I want to see her,” Eddie says.

“No, she’s sleeping now,” Eddie’s aunt says before turning her eyes on Buck, “And, uh, who is this?”

Pink comes to Eddie’s cheeks as he says, “This is Buck. We uh...work together.”

She looks him over and says, “Mmm...I thought you just dressed alike,” and it makes Buck blush a little too.

“This is my Aunt Josefina. Pepa,” Eddie says to Buck.

“Hi,” Buck nods at her shyly.

She smiles at him briefly before turning to Eddie and saying, “You can’t keep doing this, Eddie. You cannot keep leaving him with her. She’s not up to it.”

Buck watches as Eddie’s face drops and he says, “I know. I know, and I’m sorry. I...I’m trying to find some permanent help, it’s just...too many forms to fill out. It’s worse than the V.A.”

Eddie’s aunt shakes her head and says, “I can’t believe your gringa ex stuck you with all of this.”

“I’m not stuck, Tia,” Eddie insists.

And Buck smiles just a bit cause he knows Eddie believes that. He doesn’t consider himself stuck with Christopher in the least bit, he loves that boy in this uninhibited way that Buck wishes all parents loved their children. And if any child deserves that kind of unconditional love, it’s Christopher.

“Do you have to go back to work?” Eddie’s aunt asks.

Eddie’s silent which is his answer.

“Ah. And you’re not stuck. I’ll keep him tonight, but you need to get this figured out,” she hums.

Buck looks down feeling bad for him, but he’ll talk to Bobby as soon as they get back to work. And he knows Bobby will understand, he’s good like that, and like Buck has a soft spot of kids.

Christopher then calls out, “Daddy,” with a laugh.

Eddie looks back at Christopher with a sad sort of smile before rushing over to him and lifting him in his arms and hugging him tightly as Buck and Eddie’s aunt look on.

“It must be rough,” Buck says aloud.

“Raising any child alone is rough. My nephew is a saint. But I pray for him anyway,” Eddie’s aunt replies.

Christopher raises his head from Eddie’s shoulder and spots him and calls out, “Bucky!”   
  


Buck can’t fight the wide smile that comes to his face and he walks over and says, “Christopher! We meet again, have you come around to Captain America’s superiority as a superhero yet?”

“Not yet,” Christopher giggles.

Buck smiles and says, “Well you get to have a fun day now. You get to see me and your daddy be actual superheroes at the fire station. Does that sound fun?”

“Yeah,” Christopher cheers looking at Eddie who smiles and nods at Buck.

They say goodbye to Eddie’s aunt and go back down to Buck’s car where he and Christopher engage in another thoughtful debate about superheroes till they get to the station. Eddie carries Christopher upstairs to meet Hen and Chimney, while Buck finds Bobby and explains to him the situation.

“Eddie’s grandmother broke her hip, and he doesn’t have anyone else to watch him. So we brought him here, I hope that’s okay,” Buck says.

Bobby laughs goodheartedly and says, “Of course, Buck. He can come with us on our calls and sit in the firetruck. I understand.”

“Great, uh...thanks Bobby,” Buck says though perhaps it’s weird that he’s saying thanks for something that’s for Eddie like it benefits him, and maybe it does.

“No problem. I’m just glad you two are getting along. I was worried about you two working together for a while,” Bobby comments.

“Well, we’re both professional’s Cap. Personal qualms or preferences shouldn’t affect us, right?”

“Right,” Cap says giving him an odd sort of look as Buck nods and runs up the stairs to where Hen and Chimney are sitting with Eddie and Christopher and entertaining.

Buck takes his seat and just smiles as Christopher giggles and smiles like he always does, and it is like staring into the sun, cause he’s just so bright and happy, and Buck instantly wants to protect that gleeful innocence.

“You talk too much, Chim,” Hen comments at one point after Chimney’s hogged up the conversation with Christopher for the last two minutes.

Christopher laughs at this along with the rest of them and Chim makes a talking motion with his hand and says, “I do this too much?”

“We all agree believe me,” Buck says as Christopher laughs into his hands.

“Christopher, I thought we were buddies, what happened?” Chim asks.

“Nah, that’s my little buddy there. I saw him first,” Buck says giving Chim an elbow as Eddie smiles up at him gently.

“What’s this?” Bobby asks coming up the stairs and into their little circle.

Buck watches as the smile falls off Eddie’s face but he knows the captain means it all in jest and Bobby continues to say, “I don’t remember asking the chief for reinforcements. You any good with a hose, kid?”

Christopher tilts his head back and smiles, “I can try.”

“All right,” Bobby laughs.

Eddie stands slowly and says, “I’m so sorry Cap. My aunt’s trying to get off work early, but until then, I didn’t know where to take him.”

“Yeah, you did. Right here. Buck gave me a heads-up. I already cleared it with the chief,” Bobby says nodding in Buck’s direction.

Eddie’s eyes turn to him and Buck smiles up at him gently and Eddie shifts on his feet and smiles a bit before nodding.

The alarm rings off at that moment and Bobby shouts out, “All right, let’s go, let’s go!”

Buck smiles at Christopher and Eddie as he passes and goes down to the truck where Eddie carries him to. Buck sits up front with Bobby since Hen and Chim seem to want to get to know Christopher so much, while Christopher sits in the back beside Eddie.

Chimney explains their communication system saying, “These are great, see, cause we can talk to each other. Though sometimes I wish I had a mute button for Buck.”

Buck retaliates by honking the horn and says, “Oh, I’m sorry, were you saying something?”

Chimney shakes his head at him before Christopher comments, “You have a scar on your head.”

“That’s very observant, kid. I had an accident. Got a big metal rod stuck in my head, but the doctor took care of it. You ever have surgery?”

“Two times,” Christopher says before Eddie corrects him and says, “Actually, three times.”

“Well, you got me beat. Now I feel kind of lame,” Chimney replies.

“Because you are,” Hen says which makes Christopher laugh before Hen asks, “Your dad ever tell you why we call him Chimney?”

Buck looks back and grins as Chim shakes his head wildly and says, “No. No, no, no, no.”

“I’ll tell you the story later,” Hen smiles.

At the call, they have to get a woman who’s trapped in her car from an accident using the jaws of life. Bobby hangs back and entertains Christopher by telling him what they’re doing.

When they get back everyone finds various ways to entertain Christopher.

Chim plays pinball with him and Bobby makes him grilled cheese.

Eventually, they get him to slide down the fire pole with Chimney and Hen lowering him down into Buck and Eddie’s arms

“Come down, bud,” Eddie calls as Chimney says, “One more firefighter.

“Look at that yay,” Hen says as Christopher drops down to Eddie and Buck.

“Whoa,” Buck laughs holding onto Christopher gently alongside Eddie.

Christopher just giggles while Eddie and he look on adoringly just as Eddie’s aunt comes around the corner.

“All right, fun’s over,” Eddie says.

“Aw…,” Buck huffs.

“Bye, Christopher,” they all shout and wave at him as Eddie walks him over to his aunt.

Eddie walks over to Bobby and hugs him for a moment and says, “Thanks Cap.”

His eyes dart over towards Buck for a moment before turning to follow Christopher and his aunt out to ensure they leave safely.

When their shift finishes and Buck’s just finished changing to his street clothes he notices Eddie staring at him and says, “What?”

Eddie shakes his head and says, “I just...nothing.”

“Okay,” Buck says putting his clothes in his bag only to catch Eddie staring again, but this time Eddie walks over to him and wraps his arms tightly around him.

It catches Buck off guard and he’s still for a moment just lingering there as Eddie holds onto him before he wraps his arms around Eddie’s waist hugging him back. Eddie buries his face in Buck’s neck and breathes him in before whispering, “Thank you, Buck.”

Buck shakes his head and says, “It wasn’t me.”

“Maybe...but you make...you make things easier,” Eddie whispers next to his shoulder before pulling away.

They lock eyes before Eddie grabs his stuff and says, “I gotta go, pick up Christopher.”

“Yeah,” Buck nods and Eddie smiles at him before leaving and Buck rests his forehead against his locker.

When he gets home he spends a ridiculous amount of time trying to wrap his head around these different child care programs and benefits that their insurance offers and the different caveats. It’s late by the time he realizes he’s never going to get any of this. It’s too complex and he feels worse for Eddie having to figure it all out by himself.

Christopher doesn’t deserve this and neither does Eddie. Christopher’s a great kid, kind, smart, and funny, in a kid way. He just needs some extra help. And Eddie’s a great dad and shouldn’t be made to feel like he’s not, and Christopher should never feel like a burden. What’s great is that Eddie doesn’t seem to feel that way even a little.

He sleeps on it and when morning comes he’s got an idea and makes a call to an old friend from when he was with Abby.

“Hey Carla,” he says over the phone.

“Buckaroo? It’s been a while, how are you?”

“I’m...good...I have two favors to ask actually.”

“Two, wow. What is it dear?” She asks.

“Well...can you have Abby call me maybe, cause...well I moved out of her place and I...maybe she feels like it ended months ago, but I didn’t and I’d just actually like to end it for real. I feel like I need that, and I can’t do that if she’s just not going to answer, and a text or letter just doesn’t feel right.”

Carla sighs and says, “I get that Buckaroo, I’ll see what I can do. You deserve to have a conclusion. She’s going through and a lot right now, but you deserve that at the very least.”

“Thanks, Carla. I just...I know she’s your friend so…”

“I’m not on anybody’s side here Buck. Don’t you worry. Now, what was the second favor?”

“Well...I’ve got this friend and he has a kid with CP and he’s having trouble navigating all the bureaucratic forms for the insurance. I’ve tried to get my head around it, but I just can’t figure it out and neither can he. I know you work in the system, so I thought I’d ask if you might be able to help. He also needs a home health aide, so I figured I’d see if you were available.”

“Of course, I can help. I’ll have to meet him and his son, but I might be able to take them on.”

“That’s great Carla, thank you.”

“Not to worry Buck. I’ll help him figure this out. It’s sweet that you care so much.”

“He’s got a great kid, you’ll love them both, I’m sure. They deserve the help.”

“When are you thinking Buck?”

“Day after tomorrow. We’re both off. I texted him and asked if he wanted to hang out then,” of course Eddie had jumped at that, “I’ll text you his address.”

“Alright, Buckaroo. You stay safe,” Carla tells him.

“I will. Thanks again Carla, bye.”

Buck’s made it about as clear as he can that this meeting is not a date, but Eddie still has that happy grin when he lets Buck into his place.

“This a great place, it’s homey,” and he means it, it’s got personality as opposed to his own place. Eddie has pictures hanging up of people he assumes are family members, of Christopher, and himself and Christopher, and it feels lived in, unlike his apartment.

“So, what made you want to hang out all of a sudden?” Eddie asks smiling.

“I...actually there’s someone I want you to meet. So I gave them your address,” Buck says.

The smile falls off of Eddie’s face and a worried look passes over him as he says, “You didn’t set me up, did you?”

Buck holds his hands up and says, “No, just trust me. This woman is exactly what you need.”

A knock comes to the door and Buck smiles at Eddie and says, “Great, she’s here.”

He sees Eddie’s shoulders fall and a wall comes up over him as Buck walks to answer the door. He swings it open and Carla immediately smiles and says, “Buckaroo!”

Buck laughs and hugs her and says, “Carla.”

“Baby. Ah! Goodness, I missed your face,” Carla laughs.

“Oh, I missed you too,” Buck tells her, and invites her in. Eddie at this point as moved to look on behind them, a look of confusion now mixed in with the guarded look on his face.

“Eddie,” Buck says, “this is my friend Carla.”

Carla walks inside and offers her hand out to Eddie to shake and Eddie takes it as she says, “Nice to meet you, Eddie.”

Eddie ever so polite smiles a bit and says, “Likewise.”

“Carla is L.A’s finest home health care aid,” Buck explains to Eddie, “She has years of experience navigating giant bureaucracies, and I thought she could help you figure out how to get Christopher what he needs.”

Realization washes over Eddie’s face and he smiles shyly and nods at Buck before turning his eyes back to Carla who says, “I’m red tape’s worst nightmare. I’ll get you through this in no time. Now, let’s go sit down and let’s see what you’re working with. Besides that perfect bone structure.”

Buck laughs and follows her alongside Eddie. They spend a couple of hours figuring out the paperwork together and by the end, they have a better understanding of it all, and Eddie feels like he knows what to do. Carla and he work out a schedule that works for them as well and she kisses both of their cheeks before she leaves.

Buck goes to walk her out and she turns towards him and says, “I see why you need Abby to call you back now.”

“What?” Buck says.

“It’d be hard not to fall for that with her still around. But I get it, and he seems great Buck,” Carla says.

“No, we’re not. We’re just friends Carla,” Buck assures her.

Carla gives him a look and laughs, “That boy spent the last couple of hours working on this paperwork but every time he looked up he stared at you with the biggest adoring eyes I’ve ever seen. And you just spent hours pouring over the most boring of paperwork for a kid that’s not your and a guy you’re not with. Don’t joke with me Buck,” Carla says and kisses his cheek one more time before leaving.

Buck shifts as she leaves and swallows trying not to think about it as he goes back into the living room to help Eddie organize the paperwork and get it put away.

He catches Eddie looking at him and says, “What?”

“It’s not the chase,” Eddie says.

“What?” Buck asks again.

“You and me. It is not the thrill of the chase. It’s not a game. It’s things like this,” he gestures, “the way you’re with Christopher, how you care about knowing the names of the people we save, and your hair…” Eddie explains.

“My hair?” Buck asks.

“Yeah, the curls when you just wake up or when it’s wet, and it smells nice,” Eddie sighs now standing in front of him.

Buck smiles a bit and looks down before looking back up at Eddie and shaking his head softly, “I’m still not going out with you.”

“You say that now,” Eddie grins before walking backwards from Buck and into the kitchen

Buck smiles and when he gets home he thinks maybe Eddie’s right about that.


	4. No Man's Land

Buck does what he does at the end of every month, he writes another check for his mother’s care and delivers it and gets in his monthly visit. They’re always trying to get him to show up more often. But he always says he has a busy schedule and can’t make it there. It’s sort of true, but he could certainly make it more often than he does. He just doesn’t want to. They weren’t close before she had Alzheimer's and now that she doesn’t remember he hardly sees the point.

They want him to help work her memory, but he’s not sure what good that’s going to do. It’s not like he was an important part of either of his parent's lives, but he brings the one small photo album he has with him to the long term assisted living home.

He walks into the room and puts on his best smile though it’s fake and strolls in and says, “Good morning, mama.”

She barely glances at him and just scribbles something down lazily.

“I brought some pictures for you to look at,” Buck says sheepishly sitting down next to her at the table.

She observes him carefully and says, “Who are you?”

Buck smiles sadly and says, “It’s Buck mama. Uh, Evan...I’m your son...remember?” He asks carefully.

She stares at him longer and repeats his name softly, “Evan…”

“Here,” Buck says opening the photo album to the first picture, one of him, Maddie, their dad, and her in front of a big oak tree.

“See, that’s you and me,” he points to the woman in the photo holding a small blond boy in her arms.

None of them are really smiling in the photo something he’s always forced to notice when looking at it.

She blinks at it and points at his father and says, “Who’s that?”

“That’s dad. Robert. You called him Rob,” Buck tells her.

She then points to Maddie and asks, “Madeline?”

“Yeah, that’s Maddie, Madeline,” Buck nods.

She hums and then points to him and says, “Oh, Evan my little Evan, where is he?”

“Mama...it’s me, Evan. I’m right here,” he says.

She looks at him for a while before just trailing off with an “Oh...right…”

Her attention goes elsewhere then and he’s unable to get it back, and it feels like it always did. Temporary softness, followed by being ignored. 

He takes the photo album home and tosses it in a drawer next to his checkbook for the next time goes to see her.

He doesn’t sleep well that night and decides to just go in a good twenty minutes early, he’s coming out of the locker room when he runs into Eddie who smiles at him right away.

“You’re here early,” Buck says.

“You know the early bird gets the worm,” Eddie grins.

“Yeah,” Buck sighs.

“We both get here early, so maybe next time we can go get breakfast before our shift together. A good day starts with a good breakfast,” Eddie offers with a smirk.

It makes Buck smile just a bit as he shakes his head and says, “I’m not doing this with you. Learn it, live it, it’s unprofessional.”

“Oh come on,” Eddie says which seems to be his default, “Think of it as two co-workers getting to know one another.”

“The co-workers slept with each other,” Buck says crossing his arms.

“They barely knew each other,” Eddie shrugs.

“And it should stay that way,” Buck shoots back.

“You want me to be professional? I’ll be professional.”

“That’s what I want.”

“Then that’s what you’ll get. Nice talking to you firefighter Buckley,” Eddie grins before walking into the locker room.

Buck’s not in the best of moods for the shift, they transport a former nurse with a pancreas problem. It reminds him of Maddie who’s a nurse.

Their next case just makes it worse.

They got to a scene at a mall where a woman has been run over by a car. The woman's trapped underneath and Buck crouches down with Bobby and Eddie to examine her as the woman complains, “Does anyone have a pen? I got a partial license plate, someone should write it down.”

“Don’t worry about the license plate, ma’am. It’s right here on the back of the car,” Eddie tells her.

“Not this car. The car that hit me,” she says before looking over at Buck and frowning, “Evan?”

Buck freezes finally recognizing her and swallowing, “Aunt Lorraine?”

“Ha, haven’t seen you since you were a kid. You look like your mother. How is that bi…,” she begins before groaning in pain.

Buck coughs not wanting to talk about his mother that’s for damn sure and says, “Uh, wait, did you say this isn’t the car that hit you?”

“No,” she says, “this is the car that ran me over. Better be insured.”

“Let’s just focus on getting you out here first,” Bobby says, before saying, “Buck maybe you should sit this one…”

“It’s fine,” Buck says annoyed and gets low and says, “I think there’s enough room. We can slide a backboard under here and pull her out that way.

“So Evan, how is my sister?” She hisses as they begin to slide a backboard under her.

“She’s, she’s fine. I’m sure she’d send her regards,” Buck replies quickly.

“Ha, as if. My sister didn’t have regards for anyone but herself. But you that all too well, don’t you Evan?” She laughs softly before groaning in pain.

Chimney and Hen come over along with Athena, and Hen pauses and says, “Hey, wait. Don’t we know you?”

“Yeah, she’s Buck’s aunt,” Eddie says but Buck shakes his head cause the teams never met her or any of his family.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so,” his aunt Lorraine says.

“Last year, Hancock Park,” Hen recalls.

“That’s right. I never forget a femur,” Chim adds.

She looks away and back to Buck and says, “So where is your mother?”

“Traveling,” Buck supplies quickly.

“Another lie. Carolyn hates traveling, scared of planes and boats,” she scoffs, “besides she was all work all the time. But you also know that.”

“It’s the damned Porch Pirate,” Athena suddenly announces.

They get her onto the gurney and start wheeling her towards the ambulance when Athena says, “Guess you moved up from porches to parking lots, huh, Lorraine? What’s your scam?”

Buck feels embarrassed cause this is the first look anyone has at his family, and while it’s an accurate view of how messed up it is, it hardly softens that burn.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I went to court-mandated treatment. I’m completely cured. Haven’t stolen a package in months,” she says.

“Mm-hmm. I heard you settled with that homeowner,” Athena glares.

“The house she fell in front of when she was package stealing?” Hen asks.

“I didn’t realize you could sue someone for being injured during the commission of a felony,” Chim comments.

And Buck just feels more and more pride drip over him.

“Pled down to a misdemeanor. Insurance companies are happy to settle instead of going to court,” Aunt Lorraine says.

“Insurance companies are less happy about fraud. And I got three witnesses who claim you intentionally stepped out behind that poor woman’s car. Makes me wonder what I might find when I pull the security footage from this parking lot,” Athena retorts.

“I think you’ll find a woman suffering with mobility issues. Lots of trouble walking since that fall on the steps. You know, I wonder if it’s because I received improper care on the scene,” Aunt Lorraine comments.

“So you’re gonna sue us now?” Hen asks.

“Oh, you folks are city employees. Probably don’t make that much. But the city...There’s probably some deep pockets there, don’t you think?” She asks as she’s put in the ambulance.

“You want to ride with her Buck?” Chim asks.

Buck scoffs and shakes his head, “No. No, I don’t.”

They all stare at him for the rest of the day which makes it a million times worse. 

“Do you want to talk Buck?” Bobby asks him and he shakes his head.

“I’m fine,” he says before the siren goes and getting up and jumping back into the truck.

If he’s hoping for this call to be better he’s disappointed to an extreme to find they’re responding to help a man who fell while shouting a slew of homophobic slurs at a soldier's funeral.

“Sergeant Grant,” Bobby says to Athena as they arrive.

“Captain. Mr. Personality over here started coughing, grabbed his side, and fell over. Could be appendicitis. I’m not sure,” Athena tells him.

“Sir, I’m just gonna examine you for a second here,” Bobby says as they come up to the guy.

“Oh. Okay, we got a colostomy bag, probably back up. You’re gonna have to intubate him. Sir, just try to relax. These paramedics here are gonna attend to you,” Bobby tells him as Chim and Hen come forward.

“Oh, hell no,” the man says, “You do it.”

“Sir, I am not a trained paramedic. I can’t intubate you. They can,” Bobby says.

“I’m fine,” he says.

“Sir, you’re not fine. Your bowel is probably obstructed. The contents of your colostomy bag are backing up into your system. You’re about to choke on your own waste. You will suffocate and die,” Chim tells him.

“Get away,” the man says again when Chimney tries to approach him.

“Okay, sir, if you refuse care, we cannot administer it by force,” Bobby tells him.

“What about him?” He asks pointing at Eddie.

“Diaz,” Bobby calls and Eddie crouches down as the man says, “Diaz. What kind of name is that?”

“My father’s from Mexico. My mother’s Swedish. I can help you out with the Swedish half. But no one told me which half that is,” Eddie quips.

Buck grins just slightly but the man shakes his head and Buck wants to punch him.

“Okay, would you like me to call you another paramedic team so you can have an all-white one?” Bobby asks heated now.

“What about him?” He asks pointing at Buck.

Buck is white but he’d like to announce to him that he’s actually bisexual and probably doesn’t want to be touched by him either. His paramedic training is basic but he can do it so he gets down and has Chim and Hen for extra instruction as he intubates him.

After he says, “By the way I’m bisexual so next time you’re thinking how bad gay people are, just remember one saved your life with the help of no one except three minorities all vastly more qualified to do so than me,” he hisses at the guy and flips him the bird.

“Buck, that’s enough,” Bobby says.

“Don’t worry Cap. I was done.”

He’s quiet the whole ride back and once they are Bobby pulls him aside and says, “Buck if you’re having a bad day that’s one thing. But that behavior was unacceptable.”

“Sorry Cap. Won’t happen again,” Buck says.

“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off. Go spend it with your aunt, you’ve been weird since then, and if you’re worried you should go,” Bobby tells him.

“I’m not worried about her. I don’t even really know her. I have a family Bobby, and it’s the people at this station, not her, okay,” Buck fumes.

Bobby stares and says, “Buck, if you…”

“I know that Captain. But I don’t want to talk about it,” Buck shrugs and strolls off and sits down in the locker room rubbing his head.

Eddie comes in and Buck shakes his head, “If you ask me out right now I will kill you.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Eddie assures him and sits down beside him.

“I’m not going to talk to you,” Buck adds.

“That’s fine too. I just wanted to say, I thought your little display was kind of badass and it was the enlightenment that guy probably deserved,” Eddie says.

Buck looks up at Eddie and says, “Thanks. But I shouldn’t have done it. If that guy should have pissed anyone off it was you. A gay soldier's funeral in which he insulted you for your race. I should have just kept my cool.”

Eddie nods a bit and says, “Sure, but it was offensive to you too. And we’re all a family here, and he insulted pretty much all of us. So you felt it too.”

Buck nods and says, “Thanks, Eddie.”

“Anytime,” Eddie smiles and bumps his shoulder against Buck’s before leaning in and whispering, “Maybe over breakfast?”

It makes Buck smile and he shakes his head and says, “You’re terrible.”

“I made you smile though, so win,” Eddie grins and stands up and pats Buck on the shoulder before walking out.

His next day off he goes to see his mother again, which is rare and the nurses give him an odd look when he comes in again with the photo album.

“Hey mama,” Buck says, this time she looks up at him right away and says, “Do you have the paperwork?”

It’s a day when Buck knows she thinks she’s still a practicing lawyer.

“No, momma, photos,” Buck says and sits down beside her and opens it up for her.

She looks down at the different family photo where they’re all a little older and around a restaurant table, again not looking happy.

“I was about five here,” Buck tells her, “Maddie was ten. It was dad’s birthday so we went to the steakhouse.”

She views it and simply frowns and says, “How does this pertain to the case?”

Buck sighs and tries something else and says, “I saw Aunt Lorraine the other day.”

His mother makes a scoffing noise and says, “Lorraine. How is she?”

“Not great. She got hit by a car,” Buck replies.

His mother raises her brows and says, “Really?”

“Yeah, she walked behind it to purposely get hit by it, for the insurance money, but then got hit by another car, and run over by the other car,” Buck explains.

His mother stares at him for a moment before she starts giggling and touches his arm and says, “Of course she did.”

She just keeps laughing and Buck starts laughing beside her too cause he can’t help himself.

“She always was a scammer. Could never do things through hard work,” his mother says shaking her head.

“Apparently she’d just gotten off probation for stealing packages off people's doorsteps. Sued the people who she was stealing from cause she got injured during the crime,” Buck grins.

His mother laughs harder and rubs his arm and says, “She is incorrigible. God, she was terrible as a child, but she’s really stepped it up. The poor lawyer who gets stuck defending her.”

His mother shakes her head still laughing and he laughs with her. She stops suddenly and a look washes over her face before she reaches out touches his cheek and says, “Evan?”

He pauses and smiles softly, “Yeah, mama?”

She smiles and says, “You’re here.”

“I am.”

She hums softly and then whispers, “Good. Good.”

He stays for a while longer, while she remembers him and is gentle. Either is rare but even rarer together. But after an awful workday, this is what he needs.

The next workday is easier and at the end of it after everyone has cleared out he goes into the locker room where Eddie’s packing up his bag and says, “Hey, Eddie.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asks storing away his water bottle.

“Does the...does the offer for breakfast before work still stand?”

Eddie looks at him and pauses and says, “Yeah. Of course.”

“Great,” Buck smiles, “There’s a place off Citrus Avenue, I’ll text it to you.”

“Hey Buck,” Eddie calls after him.

“Yeah,” Buck says.

“Is this a…”   
  


“No, just two co-workers getting to know one another, as you said,” Buck tells him.

Eddie nods and says, “Alright. But I’m going to get that date one day, firefighter Buckley,” he grins as he passes Buck.

Buck arrives at the cafe when Eddie’s already there and sits down across from him and says, “Hi.”

“Hey, you look good,” Eddie comments.

Buck can’t help but smile and says, “Not really what someone says on a non-date between two co-workers.”

“It was just an observation, Buck, I think co-workers allowed to state the obvious,” Eddie grins and picks up his menu.

Buck kind of hates how Eddie manages to make him smile even when he’s scolding him. It makes it hard to say no to him, cause Eddie makes him feel things despite how much he protests.

“How’s Christopher?” Buck asks.

“He’s good. Carla and I have been looking at things and I think I might switch his school. There might be some that can better suit his needs,” Eddie says.

“That’s great. He’s a really great kid Eddie.”

“Yeah, he is. He had us watch Captain America again, so I think all your bullying might be getting through to him,” Eddie smirks.

“It’s not bullying. It’s a structured debate, in which I am obviously right,” Buck counters.

Eddie shakes his head and says, “He really likes you, Buck. Probably cause you’re kind of a kid yourself.”

“I don’t resent that at all. Kids are awesome. Being a grown-up is terrible.”

Eddie laughs and sips at his juice and says, “Yeah. It kind of is sometimes.”

“Hard to believe you think that.”

“Why?”

“Well other than your constant desire to ask me out, you’re Mr. Professional, Mr. Serious.”

“Well, I’m your partner a lot of the time. Someone has to be the adult,” Eddie replies.

“Ah,” Buck hums looking down the menu.

“Also I don’t have a constant desire to ask you out. I have a desire for you to say yes and actually go on a date with me, the asking you out is just means to an end that could be stopped if you just said yes,” Eddie smirks peering over his menu.

“We can’t. It was a one-time thing from before we were co-workers. It’s not happening again.”

“Technically I already was your co-worker. Your captain hired me a week before that, so…”

“Okay, okay. Eddie...this wouldn’t work. We work together, and honestly, I just got out of the longest relationship I ever had in my entire life. So...I think I just shouldn’t.”

Eddie sighs and says, “I can get that. There doesn’t have to be any big steps though. I’m not looking for a lot of commitment fast. But...I do think there’s something to us, and I want to go out with you.”

Buck smiles a bit and says, “Insatiable.”

“Hard not to be. You’re pretty great, Evan Buckley.”

Buck sighs and sits back in his chair and says, “You’re pretty great too, Eddie Diaz. But it’s still a no.”

“A sad no?” Eddie asks softly.

Buck thinks on it and says, “Yeah, kind of,” he agrees.

  
Eddie smiles to himself before saying, “Alright, what’s good here?”


	5. Shake Your Groove Thing

Going back to see his mother comes sooner than he desire, but it’s necessary this time.

“The lawyer has been managing her estate with a limited power of attorney, but your mother’s Alzheimer's is advancing. So, while she’s still lucid enough to consent, she needs to sign everything over to you,” one of the caregivers tells him.

“Me?” Buck asks stunned looking over to the window where he’s mother’s sitting, “Look, I haven’t slept in 24 hours and I have another shift in twelve hours. Are you sure there isn’t anybody here or the attorney? I mean, do I really have to be the one to handle this?” Buck asks.

“We’re talking about her estate, finances, medical care. You really want to leave her life in someone else’s hands? She’s your mother,” the caregiver states.

And in some ways, he sort of does cause the last thing he knows is what his mother would want. He’s spent years trying to figure that riddle out to no avail. He couldn’t do anything to please her before, now would be no different.

“She probably wouldn’t anyways. She thinks I make terrible decisions. Always has,” Buck huffs.

“Well, you’ll have to convince her. It’s necessary, Mr. Buckley.”

Buck sighs and says, “Okay.”

So he sets something up for after his shift which the woman looks at him sternly for cause it’s not early enough, but it’s the time he has to work with.

When Buck gets to work one of the firefighters, Stevens asks to use Buck’s place to throw a party for one of their other colleagues, Rikers.

“Please Buck, I’d do it at mine, but it’s not big enough and yours has a lot of wide empty space to mingle,” he says.

Buck sighs and says, “How many people are we talking?”

“Only a couple,” Stevens says, “Not even the entire crew,” he promises.

“When?” He asks.

“Tonight,” Stevens says smiling tightly.

Buck huffs and says, “Fine, but I won’t be able to be there till like seven so here’s my extra key, you can set it up and get it started, don’t let it get out of hand.”

“Thanks, Buck,” Stevens smiles skipping off as Buck shakes his head.

He continues to change his mind wandering to how he’s going to handle this thing with his mother. How he’s going to convince her to sign over her life to him. When she knows him she can be easier to handle, some of the time, other times it just makes her more upset.

Their first call is a man who has fallen down the stairs and shot himself in the head with a nail gun twenty-two times. Buck has no idea how the man is still alive.

“Buck get a collar on him, stabilize his neck,” Bobby tells him.

Buck moves to do it and places his hands on the man’s neck when he feels his glove snag on something. Without thinking he pulls his hand back and feels like something may have pulled with him.

He sees that the gloves popped and goes still cause he’s pretty sure the thing it got snagged on was one of the nails and that he may have tugged on it and moved it.

“Buck? You good?” The captain asks.

It probably wasn’t, it probably wasn’t, Buck tries to reassure himself.

“Yeah,” Buck answers quickly and goes back to stabilizing the man's neck.

Chim and Hen begin to load him into the ambulance and Buck feels nerves in the pit of his stomach.

Eddie comes up beside him and says, “Hey Buck, you okay?”

Buck swallows nervously and turns and says, “I think maybe I did something. When I was stabilizing his neck. I think my glove got snagged on one of the nails and pulled on the nail.”

Eddie shakes his head and says, “If you had there would have been more bleeding. But you probably didn’t cause they’re embedded in his skull, hard to pull out by hand, let alone just a tug while attached to your glove.”

“So, I shouldn’t tell Bobby?” Buck asks.

“Tell him what? Nothing happened the man’s okay, right?”

“He’s okay,” Buck whispers.

“He’s fine.”

“He’s fine,” Buck repeats.

They go on another call for a woman with breathing troubles though when they get there she shoos them away and says, “I’m fine. My daughter just worries too much.”

“She said you were having trouble breathing,” Buck relays to her.

“Always am. Been to the hospital five times. Under the knife even, never done me any good. They don’t seem to have any idea what the problem might be,” she tells him.

“I still think you should go,” Buck tells her.

“Mmm...why’s that?”

“Cause if you’re having trouble breathing, you should err on the side of caution, and it’s better than you know, not breathing,” Buck offers.

She coughs out a laugh and says, “Straight shooter huh?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I like that,” she smiles before nodding and agreeing to let them transport her to the hospital.

His mind still wanders to the first call though until Eddie slides up next to him and says, “You okay?”

“Yeah, just long shift,” Buck tells him.

“Hmm...well how about we get dinner tonight, real food, waiters, big chunks of carbs in a basket. You can tell me all about it,” Eddie smiles.

“I can’t,” Buck answers shortly.

“Forget about the party,” Eddie says.

“You know about the party?” Buck asks.

“Everyone else can be at the party. You can be somewhere alone with me. Thanks for not inviting me by the way. That felt good,” Eddie kids.

“It’s not my party. They’re just using my place.”

“Then you should have no problem ditching it. So, dinner, think about dinner. Perfect opportunity,” Eddie grins and walks away before Buck can say no again.

But Buck thinks he’s got bigger problems than Eddie Diaz.

At the end of the shift, Buck finally breaks down and goes to Bobby says, “Bobby. That first call...I...I need to talk to you about it.”

“What about it Buck? It all went well,” Bobby says sitting back.

“No...I...I think I did something. My glove got caught on something and I tugged without thinking. I think I pulled on one of the nails and may have injured him.”

Bobby stares at him and frowns and says, “Buck, what were you thinking? You had every opportunity before we loaded him up to say something.”

“I’m sorry,” Buck whispers.

“And now after the fact, it looks way worse and I’m going to have to report it. And we don’t even know if it is anything, but regardless you bring up the question late and it can still cause a problem for not reporting it sooner,” Bobby shouts at him.

“I’m sorry,” Buck repeats again.

Bobby shakes his head at him and says, “Stay here.”

Buck sits down and waits till Bobby comes back and he’s still upset.

“I talked to the chief and tomorrow you and I are going to meet with legal and the doctors to see the course of action. He’s having surgery and we’ll have to see if there were any complications. So you better go home and think about how the hell you’re going to explain what happened,” Bobby shouts before walking away shaking his head.

Buck hurries downstairs rubbing his face and Eddie is standing there and says, “You told him.”

“Yeah,” Buck huffs and moves towards the locker room.

“You want to talk about it?” Eddie asks.

Buck stops and looks at him and shrugs, “We’re adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?” He says simply before walking away.

He gets in his car and drives to the assisted living home and rushes in where the nurse greets him with a stern look.

“Oh, I’m sorry I’m late. It was the traffic,” Buck tries to explain.

“It doesn’t matter, dear,” she says to him.

“Don’t tell me the notary didn’t show,” Buck says.

“Oh, everybody’s here. It’s just your mother, isn’t,” she tells him gesturing towards his mother who’s sitting with her arms crossed in an armchair.

He looks over at her and then walks towards her and says, “Mama? Mama?”

His mother glares at him obviously not knowing who he ever is as she says, “What do you people want from me?”

“We need you to sign the lawyer’s papers,” Buck explains.

“I have to be in court in an hour. I need to go,” his mother hisses at him.

“Okay, mom. We’re all here. We have a notary. I need you to focus, and I need you to sign these papers,” Buck says.

She frowns and looks confused before Buck says, “Mom, look at me.”

She does again but simply says, “It’s an important case. I don’t have time for you and your theatrics Evan.”

Buck’s heard it time and time again and goes to retreat into himself as the nurse says, “She can’t sign anything now. She’s sundowning. We should have done this earlier in the day.”

“I couldn’t come earlier in the day,” Buck retorts, “I have a job and a life, and I’m here now,” Buck says looking to his mother who just continues to look confused.

“Well you’re gonna have to come back tomorrow, when she’s lucid,” the nurse informs him.

He’s tired, he’s exhausted and he’s upset so he turns on her and says, “You know, why did she put this off for so long? And why did you let her? Doesn’t it strike you as slightly irresponsible? I mean, what the hell is wrong with you people?” He asks before storming out taking out some of his own anger with himself on them, but it’s a genuine question he thinks.

When he gets home there are cars everywhere in the street and he can hear the music from outside and as he parks, he shakes his head and mutters, “I’m gonna kill Stevens.”

He walks up and people are in the halls and all over the apartment when he spots Chim and walks over to him and shouts, “Chimney, where is Stevens?!”

“He didn’t clear this with you?” Chim asks.

“This was supposed to be a small party. Small.”

“I guess Steven’s has a lot of friends,” Chim shrugs obviously somewhat drunk himself already.

“Stevens doesn’t even know this many people. No one does,” Buck shouts at him.

“Chim, I can’t handle this,” Buck sighs.

“You want me to kick everyone out? I’m gonna kick everyone out,” Chim laughs.

Hen suddenly spots him and waves and says, “Buckaroo! You made it!”

She’s dancing and Buck can’t help but find it kind of funny and a bit relieving of all the shit going on in his life.

He huffs and shakes his head before saying, “Screw it,” before taking the bottle of whiskey in Chim’s hand and striding towards Hen.

“I made it,” he shouts to Hen deciding to let go of his inhibitions and not be an adult for the night.

He takes a big swallow of the whiskey and begins dancing alongside Hen before she waves and calls for Chimney, “Chimmy! Chim! Come here, come on.”

Buck takes another swallow of the whiskey before passing it off to Chim to take another swig.

The three dance together with Buck taking two more gulps before setting it aside because the three of them have decided to play strip poker cause they’re really that drunk.

Hen’s stuck her cards to her face and Chim announces, “Full house.”

“Royal flush,” Hen burps and then laughs, “Get naked, Chimmy boy.”

Chim pulls off his shirt with a groan at his loss while Buck says, “Ooo Chim you’re so sexy.”

“Give me that you’re drunk,” Hen says taking the whiskey bottle from him.

“So, you’re drunk too. Besides I’m home. I’m not driving and I’ll be fine by the morning,” Buck argues trying to reach from the bottle as Hen takes a drink.

“No,” Hen says pulling the bottle from him.

“Come on Hen. I’m in my own house, my life is crap, and it’s my party, and I’ll get drunk if I want to,” he says taking the bottle back from her and pouring another swig down his throat finishing off the bottle.

He sighs and says, “I’m gonna go get more to drink.”

He gets up and grabs a bottle of tequila, but instead of going back to Chim and Hen, he decides to dance his way outside.

People are mingling on the sidewalk outside and Buck decides to just dance to the low hum of the music while throwing back a few swigs of tequila.

Suddenly a voice calls out and says, “You know, in some state, you can get arrested for that.”

Buck looks up and sees Eddie leaning up against his truck and smiling at him.

A small smile comes to Buck’s face and he begins walking over to him and Eddie meets him in the middle of the sidewalk.

“So, you blew me off dinner with me for a bottle of tequila. Tequila’s no good for you, doesn’t call, doesn’t write. It’s not nearly as much fun to wake up to,” Eddie says smiling.

Buck breaks into a wide smile before grabbing a hold of Eddie’s shirt and pulling him in and kissing him soft and slow.

Eddie returns the kiss his fingers moving through Buck’s hair just before Eddie pulls away.

When he does Buck looks into Eddie’s eyes still holding him close by his shirt and pressing his face close to Eddie’s as he whispers, “Take me for a ride, Eddie.”

Eddie leads him over to his truck where he lays back the passenger seat little before pulling Buck into his lap.

Buck giggles and kisses Eddie gently his fingers locking in his hair, pressing his body up against Eddie’s.

“Buck, Buck,” Eddie says against his lips.

Buck just keeps kissing Eddie before Eddie finally pulls away and holds his face in his hands, “Buck, how drunk are you?”

“Mmm...pretty drunk, but not like drunk drunk. I’ll remember you in the morning. M’just a little unfocused and my inhibitions are down just enough that I don’t think this is such a bad idea,” Buck giggles.

Eddie smiles softly and strokes Buck’s cheek and kisses him deeply sliding his hands underneath Buck’s shirt.

Buck moans softly from just the small bit of skin to skin contact and lifts Eddie’s shirt and tosses it into the backseat and kisses down Eddie’s neck.

“Mmm..that’s nice Buck,” Eddie whispers as Buck’s hands move across Eddie’s abdominals tracing them.

Eddie slowly lifts Buck’s shirt over his head and throws it back to join his own before pulling Buck’s hips tighter against his own.

Buck groans and licks his way into Eddie’s mouth satisfying himself with the kiss for a while before lifting his hips to undo his jeans. Eddie helps by moving the seat back more and Buck undoes his jeans. Eddie lifts himself off the seat a bit to get them down before pulling Buck back against him and kissing him.

“Do you got stuff?” Buck hums.

“Mmm...yeah I told you I’d put a condom in my wallet after the shower makeout,” Eddie laughs.

Buck chuckles and whispers, “And lube?”

“Middle console.”   
  


Buck grabs it and unscrews the cap while Eddie pushes their boxers down and rolls on the condom.

Eddie takes the lube from him too and pulls Buck up against his chest and kissing on his neck before squirting the lube on his fingers and pressing one against his hole.

Buck shivers at the delicate touch followed by the gentle press as Eddie’s finger presses past the ring of muscle.

“Fuck, Eddie,” he whispers as Eddie slowly works him open with one and then two fingers. He only uses a third finger for a while as Buck moans openly and swats back at his hand.

“Come on Eddie.”

“Alright, alright,” Eddie laughs before pulling his fingers from Buck.

Buck sighs and grips Eddie’s shoulders before lowering himself onto Eddie slowly with a deep groan.

He moves down till Eddie’s all the way inside him and rests there for a moment his mouth open as he wills his muscles to relax.

Eddie helps with this just kissing him softly, one hand at the small of his back keeping him close, and the other moving through his hair gently massaging his scalp.

It’s not the rushed drunk sex he’s expecting, it’s delicate and searching, with their hands moving over each other in careful exploration.

When Buck starts moving Eddie moans his name like a secret in his ear before his lips wander down to kiss and suck marks against Buck’s neck and shoulder.

“You’re so beautiful, Buck. So good. I’ve got you, Buck, I’ve got you,” are just a few of the things Eddie whispers in his ear that fill him up and make him forget about all the stress he’s under, all the problems he’ll still have in the morning. It’s different than any sex he’s ever had. With Abby, he was in control, and even he didn’t have as soft of words to say. But Buck finds that he thrives under the soft praise Eddie gives him.

When he’s panting against Eddie’s neck his hips rolling down the meet Eddie’s, Eddie’s hand moves between them and grips him and stroking him till he comes moaning in Eddie’s ear.

Eddie follows soon after him thrusting through both of their climaxes and whispers to Buck, “So good, Buck.”

He drops his forehead to Eddie’s shoulder becoming nothing but a pile of mush after sex and wanting to hide in the safety of Eddie’s arms and neck.

Eddie’s fingers move through his hair slowly before he reaches over and grabs a wipe from the center console to clean them both off.

He lifts Buck in a way that doesn’t disturb him from his little hiding spot in Eddie’s shoulder too much, in order to pull up their boxers and jeans, and wraps the condom up in the wipe. Eddie sets it aside and just idly traces the bumps in Buck’s spine and kisses the round of his shoulder.

“You good Buck?” He asks softly.

Buck nods and breathes, “Yeah. Can I just...can we just...here for awhile?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Eddie says seeming to understand, his arm wrapping tighter around his waist, pulling Buck closer.

After a minute or so Buck idly wonders and whispers, “Christopher?”

“He’s sleeping at Abuela’s,” Eddie tells him rubbing the muscles in his neck.

Buck nods and rests against Eddie again before Eddie whispers, “You know it sounds like the party is winding down.”

Buck doesn’t say anything and Eddie asks, “Are you listening to me?”

“What?” Buck asks.

“We should probably sneak inside now.”

Buck chuckles and sighs, “We’ve done enough sneaking for the night. It was good sneaking. But enough sneaking.” He kisses Eddie softly looking down into his face and brushing his hair back before going in for a deeper kiss.

“Yeah, I’d say we’re pretty good sneakers,” Eddie muses with a laugh and goes to kiss Buck again when a knock against the window and a flashlight startles them.

  
  
  


“Break it up, parties over,” a familiar voice says just before the flashlight hits their faces and they both look back at Athena like deers in the headlights.

She takes them in and shakes her head, “Buck.”

She gives him a disappointed look and says, “You better get inside Buckley. Seems like you have quite the mess to clean up here and tomorrow. And you Diaz, you better call a cab and head home.”

“Apparently not good enough sneakers,” Eddie whispers.

Buck quickly reaches into the back for his shirt and all but falls out of the passenger side door to get out.

Athena shakes her head at him and Eddie gets out soon and coughs, “I didn’t have anything to drink.”

“Well I’ll have to see about that, so you come get on this line here, and you better get your dumb butt upstairs right now Buckley,” Athena glares.

Buck coughs and nods and quickly rushes upstairs where the party has obviously been cleared out. And he swears he’s going to kill Stevens by the disarray his apartment is in.

He gets the remaining people out besides Hen and Chim who he allows to crash on the floor, while he drops to his bed and groans into his pillow. And he’s certain he’s getting fired tomorrow.

Chim is the first of them up the next day and brings coffee to Buck and says, “When’s your meeting with Cap and the lawyers.”

Buck groans head pounding and says, “In an hour.”

“You want me to help kill Stevens?” Hen asks as she looks around the destruction.

“Who cares. I mean what would I be doing anyway if not partying and dealing with this?” Buck asks.

“Preparing for your career-altering meeting,” Chim suggests.

Hen and Buck both glare at him and he groans and says, “Sorry. Think I’m still a little drunk. I haven’t partied like that since...ever?”

“Yeah, I haven’t had a night like that in fifteen years,” Hen comments shaking her head.

“Well at least I wasn’t the only one acting less than adult last night,” Buck huffs.

When Buck goes to the meeting and he expects to be fired on the spot after what Athena saw last night. But Bobby doesn’t mention it though he’s still obviously upset as they go in with the chief, the captain, the doctors, and lawyers.

The doctors explain that the patient is fine and no abnormal bleeding was found, so at the very least there’s nothing Buck caused that could make this a million times worse. 

“We still need to talk about how you failed to report something that could have been a liability for the city,” the lawyers say, “so if there’s anything you’d like to say this would be where you’d do it.”

Buck swallows and nods before saying, “I understand what I did wrong and the responsibility I hold, and I know the grave issues my mistake could have caused. I’ve learned from that, and it will absolutely not happen again.”

“That still doesn’t negate the fact, that the action wasn’t reported at the time of the occurrence,” the lawyer shoots back.

“And if I could change that,” Buck starts.

“And you can’t,” the lawyer interrupts, “you left yourself and the city open to a tremendous amount of liability.”

“Not if the event didn’t actually cause any problem,” Bobby jumps in to his defense suddenly.

It surprises Buck, to say the least.

“Regardless it calls into question Mr. Buckley’s competency as a firefighter. He made a huge error here.”

“And he reported it,” Bobby argues.

“Too late,” the lawyer shoots back.

“But he reported it. He spoke up. We make mistakes as people who save lives every day. There are things that nag us on whether or not toe speak up. Maybe because we’re afraid that we’ll be called into a meeting where some city lawyer’s fear of liability could end our career. Even the best of us make mistakes, and when we do, we’ve got to have a chance to speak without fear of retribution or everyone suffers. Firefighter Buckley spoke up,” Bobby tells them.

Buck smiles a bit and the meeting ends with Buck just getting one-month probation. When they walk out Buck turns to Bobby and says, “Bobby...thanks for having my back in there.”

“Buck. I won’t be able to save you every time.”

“I know. I’m sorry, but...thank you, Bobby,” Buck says before hugging Bobby tightly.

Bobby sighs and hugs him back and pats his back, “You’re good at your job. It wasn’t something you deserved to lose it over.”

Buck smiles at him and walks down the stairs where Eddie, Chim, and Hen are all waiting apparently all here for him to see the damage on their days off.

“Hey, Buck are...you okay?” Eddie asks.

Buck makes eye contact with him for a moment before looking at all of them and says, “Just one-month probation.”

‘That’s good,” Eddie says.

“Yep,” Buck says shortly before looking at Chim and Hen more directly and saying, “Bobby saved my ass.”

Hen and Chim smile and say, “Come on, we’ll help you clean up your apartment.”

“Uh...I’ve got something else to handle real quick. You two mind getting started without me?” He asks.

“Sure, Buck,” Hen says patting his back as he rushes off.

He goes to the assisted living home and luckily his mother is lucid enough to sign the papers.

It doesn’t take much for her to sign, a lot less than expected. She’s rather docile in the moment, understands her illness. Understands that no one else is going to do it, or be there, it’s only Buck.

His dad is gone and has been for years, with a new family, somewhere. Maddie’s got her asshole husband and won’t return a call. She doesn’t have anyone else but Buck.

She has to trust him.

Buck doesn’t spend much time with her after that, just goes back home where Chim and Hen are hard at work cleaning up the place.

“Thanks a lot for helping guys,” Buck tells them.

“Of course. It was a fun party. We’re here for you Buckaroo,” Hen smiles and pats his back as he grabs a trash bag and starts picking things up.

“You get that thing taken care of Buck?” Chim asks.

Buck nods and says, “Yeah. I did.”

Now if only he can figure out how he’s going to handle this Eddie and Athena thing.


	6. If Tomorrow Never Comes

Buck’s running late to his shift and is scrambling to get inside when he runs directly into Eddie.

“Crap,” Buck says.

“Crap?” Eddie asks.

“Hi, I’m late,” Buck replies pushing past him.

“You’re avoiding me,” Eddie says following him.

“Yes, but also, late,” Buck counters.

“Buck, are we gonna talk about this?”

“No.”

“About us and Athena and what she saw, and if she tells Bobby,” Eddie says quietly.

“I don’t need to talk about it. I experienced it. Naked.”

“This is getting complicated,” Eddie sighs rubbing his face.

“Complicated for me this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and Athena keeps giving me a look,” Buck huffs as he gets to his locker quickly pulling out his clothes to change.

“What do you mean?” Eddie asks.

“It’s…,” Buck stalls.

“Complicated.”

“Yeah.”

“If I was a better guy I’d walk away,” Eddie tells him.

“Yes you would,” Buck replies.

There a beat of silence as Bucks pull on his tee-shirt before Eddie says, “You want me to be a better guy?”

Buck pauses too and says, “Yes,” immediately followed by, “No…,” and finally, “Crap. I’m late.”

Eddie sighs and says, “Take your time. Think about it.”

Buck gives a short nod before saying, “Pissing Bobby off by being late is the last thing I need. Do you think Athena told him?”

“I doubt it. Think we’d have heard something by now if she had right?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah, I guess,” Buck huffs.

“They can’t fire us can they?” Eddie asks.

“You? Unlikely. Me? Probably. Like I said there were some incidents before you got here and...I am on probation.”

“Right,” Eddie huffs as Buck finishes changing and rushes out of the locker room without another word.

Their first call of the day is really something.

It’s initially just a call for a woman with shortness of breath but when they get there they find a woman with an oddly shaped mass taking over most of her abdomen region to be what’s causing her breathing problems.

Buck gets the nasal canula and puts her on the oxygen and says, “Hi, ma’am,” when she looks at him.

“Oh, don’t call me ma’am. It makes me feel old and fat,” she says.

“Well your neither of those things,” Buck says and looks for her name and says, “Annie,” with a smile.

She smiles at him and he helps the rest of the team transfer her to the gurney.

“Alright, Chim and Hen, you go with her to the hospital,” Bobby says.

“Uh, actually, can I have Buck and him,” she says pointing to Eddie, “go with me. I mean...they’re just so fun to look at.”

Eddie and Buck both smile bashfully before Bobby smiles and nods, “Of course.”

The two of them get in the back of the ambulance with her and Buck asks, “You doing alright Annie?”

“Yeah,” she says.

“Good,” he smiles.

“You have a very pretty smile. You have to have a girlfriend right?” She asks.

“Thank you. But I’m afraid not,” Buck says, taking her pulse.

“What about you?” Annie asks Eddie.

“Actually, I’m trying really hard to get him to go out with me,” Eddie says honestly as Buck turns to him shooting daggers with his eyes.

“Eddie!” Buck hisses.

Eddie grins and Annie laughs softly and says, “How’s that going?”

“I can never tell, to be quite honest,” Eddie muses.

“Not well,” Buck tells him shortly which both Eddie and Annie laugh at.

“Come on. Annie here thinks you should go out with me. Don’t you Annie?”

“He’s really good looking,” Annie says to Buck.

“Yeah, but he’s a real pain in the ass too,” Buck huffs.

“I’m just saying. It’s better to go and live life and do what you want. Or one day you’ll find yourself trapped under eighty pounds of whatever this is,” she says patting the mass.

Buck gives her a small smile as they pull into the hospital and hop out and lift the gurney out of the ambulance.

“Hey, Buck,” Annie calls out to him as they begin to wheel her away.

“Yes, Annie?”

“I think you should do it.”

Buck swallows and Eddie shouts after her, “Thanks, Annie.”

Buck shoots a glare at him and Eddie grins back as Chimney asks, “What was that about?”

“Nothing,” Buck says shortly before striding off towards the fire truck with Eddie laughing behind him.

Their next call is to a gas station robbery and his worst fear is realized when the responding officer is none other than Athena and he doesn’t dare meet her eye.

Athena announces the pair of injured criminals as “Bonnie and Clyde meets Dumb and Dumber.”

And Buck feels her give a look to both him and Eddie.

“He seems fine,” Eddie says of the male criminal, “His pupils are dilated, definitely high on something.”

“I’ll try to contain my shock,” Athena says shortly, “Get him out of here,” she tells Eddie.

“Stay strong, Baby Bear,” the male tells his female partner.

Eddie grins at the nickname and looks over at Buck and mouths, “Baby Bear,” which makes Buck smile just a bit before Athena gives him the death glare and wipes it off his face.

“I’m going to follow him out Bobby,” Athena says walking out with Eddie as Buck begins to panic slightly.

Athena stalks behind Eddie as he moves the criminal before he looks back at her and simply says, “Athena.”

“Excuse me?” She says.

Eddie goes wide-eyed and says, “Well, that’s your name, right?”

She just stares him down and he says, “All right, I’ll just call you officer Grant then.”

Athena scoffs at him and says, “You think you’re charming in that talented, neurotic, overly styled hair sort of way. Good for you. But if you think I’m gonna stand back while you play around with Buck.”

“I’m not playing around with Buck,” he says in a hushed whisper.

“Your little flirtation and sexcapades in front of his apartment seem like a game to me. And if I see you messing around with him again especially on the job, I’ll make sure Bobby knows about the little thing you two have going,” she retorts before walking away.

When they get back to the fire station Buck approaches Eddie and says, “What did Athena say to you?”

“Nothing,” Eddie replies.

“I saw you two talking…” 

“It had nothing to do with you, Buck. Okay? Clearly, I’ve gotten the message. You don’t want this. It’s done, don’t worry about,” Eddie says before storming off.

Buck’s left staring after him and wondering what the hell happened. And even more, confused as to why he feels so bad about it.

He and Chim are eating lunch when Chimney says, “So you and Eddie seem to be getting along great these days. You’re kind of a duo.”

Buck rolls his eyes and says, “Hardly. He’s a jack ass.”

“Woah. What happened? You two were all giggles this morning.”

“Nothing, I just realized, he’s an ass.”

Chimney laughs and says, “Okay then.”

During his next shift, their first call is to transport a man with Parkinson’s to the hospital after a fall.

The daughter walks with them as they go to load the gurney and says, “Dad if you would only consider the treatment. It could help.”

“I’m not letting some quack cut into my brain, and for what. I’ll be at your wedding. I will sit in the back, your uncle will walk you down the aisle,” he says to her.

“I want you, and this could help you do it. You could walk, the tremors wouldn’t be as bad,” the daughter says obviously getting worked up.

“I know it’s not perfect. But it’s life. Life is messy sometimes,” he says as they load him into the ambulance.

“I know that,” she says as Buck gets in alongside the man with Chimney and the daughter walks away before the doors closed.

The man sighs and looks up at Buck and says, “If she knows then what the hell are we still talking for, huh? Why in hell can’t she drop it?”

Buck frowns and thinks of his mother and taking care of her these last couple of years.

“It is your life. But it’s her life, too. And it sounds like you have a chance to get better here. And all she’s asking you to do is try,” Buck replies.

Chim gives him an odd sort of look but the man stares at Buck for a moment before looking away seeming to think about it.

When they get back to the station later Chim grabs his arm and says, “Hey, Buck, what you said in the back of the ambulance, what was that?”

“What do you mean?”

“It was sage advice. Good advice. It sounded like it came from experience.”

Buck’s lips tighten and he shakes his head, “Nope. Just watch a lot of cheesy soaps on my day off I guess,” he says quickly retreating.

He goes upstairs and sees a new bounty of goodies from people and grabs a piece of fudge with nuts and groans at the taste, with the rest of the crew not far behind.

Chim comes up last and pauses in front of the empty tray and complains, “Seriously, you guys? You couldn’t even leave me any crumbs?”

“Ooh, Chim, you missed out,” Buck says shoving his face with another piece.

“Is that chocolate?” Chim asks.

“Mmm. Fudge, with nuts,” Eddie groans.

“I love fudge with nuts,” Chimney huffs.

“Oh, damn, you would’ve loved these because....scrumptious,” Hen tells him.

The alarm goes off and they all rush for the firetruck and hop into the back and at first Buck’s annoyed cause he’s gotten stuck next to Eddie but somewhere in the ride, he ceases to care all of the sudden.

“Man. My allergies are going crazy today,” Eddie says all of the sudden rubbing his face.

“You, too, huh?” Buck asks leaning in closer than he probably should, “The index wasn’t elevated this morning. You think it’s a new kind?”

“A new kind of what?” Eddie asks leaning into him.

“Pollen.”

“A new kind of pollen?” Chimney asks giving them a look.

“You’re not feeling this, Chim?” Eddie asks.

“No, I do not.”

“I can see the pollen,” Eddie whispers.

Buck stares out and then smiles brightly, “I can hear it.”

Eddie laughs and rubs Buck’s arm and says, “I can hear your thoughts.”

“Woah, what am I thinking?” Buck giggles.

“About me, obviously,” Eddie chuckles and drops his head to Buck’s shoulder laughing.

“What the hell is going on with you two?” Chimney asks.

“Aw…Chim feels left out, come here Chimmy,” Buck says reaching for him.

“No I do not, and we’re belted in,” Chim scoffs.

They pull in and Chimney gives them one more side glance before they walk in.

Buck stands close to Eddie’s side and even grips his arm and leans into him once they’re in the room surrounded by a swarm of small beauty queens.

Chimney’s run off somewhere they don’t know too focused on the little girls.

Buck grabs Eddie’s face and turns it towards him, “Eddie, Eddie. Did these beauty queens shrink, or are we suddenly giants?”

He looks over and his eyes widen and he goes, “Woah,” before backing up into Buck’s arms.

Athena spots them holding onto each other and says, “Oh you two have got to be kidding me? What the hell is wrong with you guys? I tell you both to knock it off. Do you two have a Romeo and Juliet death wish.”

But Buck just blinks and says, “Athena? When’d you get here?”

She gives him a look as Chimney shouts, “Can someone please bring me my gear?”

Eddie and Buck don’t move other than to look back at each other and start poking each other’s faces.

“So what now you two don’t even do your jobs, you really want me to tell Bobby this? Buck, you are on thin ice, and you’re throwing your career away for what?”   
  


Buck doesn’t hear anything that she says and simply replies, “These ladies, they’re the tiniest ladies I’ve ever seen. Teeny tiny.”

“Excuse me?” She replies.

“So tiny,” Eddie agrees resting his chin on Buck’s shoulder and looking at them.

She shakes her head at them and then calls, “Henrietta.”

Hen who has been preoccupied with her own reflection turns and calls out, “Thena,” with a big smile.

Athena gives her a look as she comes closer and sighs, “Oh, Thena you smell like love.”

She suddenly goes, “Dear lord. Chimney! I need you over here.”

She says something into her radio that they don’t hear cause Buck and Eddie are now too focused on hiding in the balloons. 

Chimney comes over and starts to say, “Where the hell is my lido…”

“We got a problem here,” Athena says, “You guys are tripping.”

“What?” Chimney asks before looking at them and saying, “What? Guys, look at me. Do you know where you are?”

Eddie and Buck trip over the balloons making them pop which spooks Buck closer to Eddie who wraps his arm around his shoulders before saying, “We’re everywhere, man.”

“They’re on drugs,” Athena shouts.

Hen starts crying and buries her face into Chimney’s shoulder as he says, “Okay, okay,” before, “Oh. Oh, my God, it’s the fudge.”

“Fudge?” Athena asks.

“Yeah, we got a new batch today. We’ve been getting a lot of stuff lately, especially since the earthquake.”

“You guys eat that stuff?” Athena asks appalled, “We just throw that stuff right in the trash,” she adds.

“We’re firefighters. Everybody loves us,” Chimney supplies.

Buck’s giggling and hugging Eddie around the middle swaying and says, “I like firefighters.”

“Buck, Eddie, separate, if I have to tell you two again,” she yells at them.

“No, no, leave it,” Chimney says, “They were fighting today. Maybe this can solve it.”

Athena gives him a small look and shakes her head but doesn’t say anything except, “I don’t think so,” before separating Buck and Eddie from each other as Eddie whines.

They all get taken out to the lobby where Athena handcuffs them at which point Eddie starts crying.

“No, I don’t like this. I want to be by Bucky,” Eddie cries.

“Oh I’m sure you do,” Athena says with a roll of her eyes.

“Aww, you made him cry,” Buck complains stomping his foot which makes Athena shake her head.

“Just breathe, okay? You’re all going to be okay. Somebody dosed you with a hallucinogen. We don’t want you to hurt yourself or anyone else,” Athena explains.

Eddie cries softly but nods, “Yeah. Yeah. I like that idea.”

Hen smiles and says, “Athena, your head is beating like your heart.”

“Is it?” She asks huffing and shaking her head.

They’re taken back to the station to sleep it off for a while with Chimney shaking his head as he keeps a watchful eye over all of them.

When they come to Eddie asks, “Did everything kind of sparkle?’

“Uh, I’d say it was more glistening like the whole world was covered in dew,” Hen laughs.

“You think this is why people go to Burning Man?” Buck asks.

They all laugh and Chimney says, “No, Buck. I don’t think that’s why.”

Buck sighs and looks at Eddie who he spent so much time hanging on and smiles a bit before walking off.

Eddie follows and says, “Hey, Buck.”

“What Eddie?” Buck asks.

“About what I said...Athena…she was on the warpath about you and me, and I was...just trying to protect you.”

“You getting involved with me and having feelings is why she’s on the warpath. You can’t be all up close with me at work.”

“Okay, okay,” Eddie says.

“But you also can’t treat me like crap at work either,” Buck adds.

“Okay,” Eddie says again.

“I can take care of myself, and if what I decide is that I want something from this then, I’ll protect myself then too. You don’t need to stick your neck out on the line for me,” Buck huffs.

“So...you’re still considering it?” Eddie smiles a bit.

Buck grins and sighs, “Yeah, sadly I am. I think I should maybe just lean into it instead of just falling into it when I’m drunk or drugged. That can hardly be healthy.”

“No, it can’t be,” Eddie sighs and looks over at him.

“But either way, I got myself into this mess, and I…” Buck starts.

“And you’ll get yourself out?” Eddie asks amused.

“I don’t...know that yet.”

Eddie smiles and Buck sighs and says, “Don’t let me keep you. Go see Christopher or something.”

Eddie hums and says, “Alright, Buck,” starting to walk away before Buck calls out to him.

“Wait, Eddie.”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry I called you a jackass.”

“You didn’t,” Eddie says blinking at him.

“I did...twice,” Buck grins a bit.

Eddie scoffs and shakes his head at him before smiling and walking away.

Athena arrives to check on Bobby as Buck’s getting ready to leave and he approaches her and says, “Athena.”

“You feeling better Buck?” She says shortly.

“I am. But Athena I just wanted to talk to you about what you saw…” Buck begins.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she scoffs.

“It’s just...I didn’t know...that he was my coworker when I met him. I didn’t know.”

“I don’t care,” Athena states.

“Really? Oh, well, you sort of seem to not be talking to me other than to yell at me, so I…” Buck starts.

“You see this. What’s happening right here? This is my problem with you sleeping with one of your coworkers. Not whether or not you knew him before, but how it affects my day. And me standing here talking to you about your sex life affects my day. And keeping a secret from Bobby affects my day. And the longer this little fling goes on, the more secrets I and others have to keep. It affects our work and our days. And when this ends and you two can’t work together, that affects our days. So I don’t care what you knew or when you knew it. You understand?” Athena asks.

“Yes,” Buck whispers.

“Good,” she replies and walks away from him.

Buck thinks about it, cause maybe Athena is right. This will probably inevitably end and everyone will be affected here if the pair of them can’t work together. If things go poorly. Christopher could be effected too and none of their friends, the people they serve, or Christopher deserves that.

He sleeps on it, goes through another shift thinking about it.

But he comes to the same annoying conclusion.

He wants Eddie Diaz.

So when their shift ends at four Buck approaches Eddie and says, “So I know this place where there’s an amazing view of sunrise over the ferryboats.”

Eddie pauses and looks at him for a moment like he’s trying to read him before he breaks out in a small smile, “I have a thing for ferryboats,” he whispers.

“I remember.”

Eddie’s cheeks pink up a little and Buck reaches over and takes his hand in his. Eddie bites his lip and says, “So um...what is this? That we’re doing here?”

Buck walks with him to his car and tilts his head a bit as he leans up against his car, “What is it? You need a definition?”

“I don’t need one, but I’d like one.”

Buck nods and cups Eddie’s cheek and kisses him softly and says, “I’m taking you to a place I think you’ll like and risking my career to do it. Think you can figure it out?”

Eddie smiles against his lips and says, “Yeah. I think so.”

“Okay,” Buck whispers and pulls away from Eddie and opens the door for him.

He gets into the driver's seat and drives them to the little spot that overlooks the ferries at sunrise and gets out of the car and climbs on the hood with Eddie.

Eddie lays back and Buck can hear the gears in his brain turning and says, “You’re thinking really loud for someone who finally got what he said he wanted.”

Eddie lets out a laugh and turns his head towards Buck and says, “Its just...you’re risking a lot.”

“Yeah. But I guess I figure even the worst mistake beats the hell out of never trying,” Buck shrugs.

Eddie stares at him for a second before leaning over and kissing him softly and tracing his cheek with his thumb.

Buck strokes Eddie’s hair gently and Eddie sighs into the kiss and whispers, “I like when you do that.”

“What? Play with your hair?”

“Yeah, it feels nice,” he breathes and rests his head against Buck’s shoulder.

He looks over at Eddie and continues to rake his fingers through Eddie’s hair and whispers, “I like your hair.”

Eddie chuckles and says, “Athena said it’s overly styled.”

But laughs along with him and sighs, “I guess it does kind of make you look a little douchey.”

“What?” Eddie exclaims.

“But like in a hot way,” Buck teases.

Eddie shakes his head at him and then says, “So, you and me, we’re trying.”

“It would seem so.”

Eddie nods and smiles though he’s trying to suck it in and hide it.

“You’re smiling,” Buck notes.

“I’m...I’m happy,” Eddie sighs with a laugh letting the smile take over his face.

It makes Buck smile too and he presses closer to Eddie before saying, “Yeah, me too.”


	7. The Self Destruct Button

An alarm goes off next to Buck’s head and he groans softly and turns it off before reaching behind him to rub Eddie’s leg gently.

Eddie presses closer to him burying his face into Buck’s neck before rubbing his hand up and down on Buck’s arm.

“I have to get up now,” Buck yawns.

Eddie’s hand moves from Buck’s arm up to rub his eyes as he yawns and says, “What? God, what time is it?”

Buck rolls towards him and Eddie buries his face into Buck’s chest kissing gently as Buck whispers, “It’s 5:20, and I have to leave before Christopher sees me.”

He rolls on top of Eddie brushing Eddie’s hair away from his face and kissing him.

Eddie rolls them again and kisses Buck hungrily and whispers, “So, let him see.”

Eddie’s lips move down to his neck as Buck’s arms are wrapped around him and Buck laughs softly and says, “No, we’re not letting Christopher on any of this.”

“Maybe, not this part, but it doesn’t matter if he sees you,” Eddie whispers against Buck’s shoulder.

“Mmm...it’s too soon,” Buck sighs and slowly pulls himself from Eddie’s arms to pulling on his boxers as Eddie watches from the bed.

“Why don’t you just stay for breakfast? We can tell him you slept on the couch. Then we could carpool to work,” Eddie offers.

“No. It’s best if he doesn’t get used to me being around constantly, in case this doesn’t…,” Buck starts.

“Last?” Eddie asks.

Buck sighs and pulls on his jeans and cups Eddie’s face and kisses him gently.

“This is going great. I really like you,” Buck whispers and strokes Eddie’s cheek, “but it’s still early. And you have a kid, that makes things more complicated.”

“Right,” Eddie whispers.

“Not in a bad way,” Buck adds quickly, “it just means that someone else is in this relationship besides the two of us. And I’m happy with that. It makes me more aware though that I have to do my best to contain the damage that this going wrong best I can, more than I would in another relationship. I just…I care about both of you, and if things somehow fall apart, I’m not saying they will. But if they do…”

“You’d rather only have one of us hurting,” Eddie finishes.

“Yeah. Christopher should be a kid, and not have to worry about our relationship with each other during or after if something happens,” Buck states.

“Okay,” Eddie whispers pecking Buck’s lips before he pulls his shirt on.

“Besides we shouldn’t be going to work together. It’s suspicious,” Buck tells him.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Eddie says.

Buck gets his shoes on and pulls Eddie in by the back of his neck and kisses him softly, feeling Eddie sigh into it when he pulls away.

“Just promise me you’ll eat something good for breakfast and not the leftover pizza in your fridge,” Eddie says.

“As opposed to the cereal you’re going to make for yourself and Christopher because you can’t cook to save your life?” Buck asks.

“How dare you and yes,” Eddie retorts.

“I promise,” Buck smiles and steals one more kiss before heading for the bedroom door and whispering back, “I’ll see you at work.”

“See you,” Eddie says as Buck rushes out and creeps past Christopher’s bedroom and out the door to his car.

A couple of hours later when Buck’s buttoning his shirt in the locker room Eddie races in late and Buck raises his brows.

“You’re running late,” Buck comments.

“Drop off was a pain today,” Eddie huffs pulling his shirt off quickly and quickly slipping on his work shirt.

“Did you have time for cereal?” Buck asks.

“Barely,” Eddie laughs pulling on his work pants quickly, making Buck grin as he hops on one foot to pull them on.

“What the hell happened after I left?” Buck asks.

“I forgot to reset the alarm and just went right back to sleep,” Eddie says.

“Helpless,” Buck quips.

“Well what can I say, maybe the Diaz boys just need a Buck to keep them on schedule,” Eddie hums wrapping his arms around Buck’s waist and kissing below his ear.

Buck smiles slightly and says, “Is that what it is?”

“Mhmm,” Eddie nods before Buck pushes him away gently.

“Not at work. Work’s got to be off bounds if this is going to work,” Buck sighs.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good rule,” Eddie laughs before going back to changing.

But not far off Hen and Chimney have been watching and Hen sighs and shakes her head, “At least we know saving lives isn’t his only skill.”

Chim looks at her and says, “They can’t do this, they're co-workers and Buck will go full Buck 1.0 again and screw everything up.”

“Buck wouldn’t do that,” Hen says walking away.

Chimney follows her and whispers, “Well if it’s not something he’s ashamed of then why is he keeping it a secret.”

“Maybe he didn’t. Maybe it just happened suddenly last night,” Hen reasons.

A couple of minutes later they’re all upstairs and Chimney is pouring himself a coffee.

He eyes Buck and Eddie for a moment but they’re not doing anything at the moment. Buck’s playing a game on his phone and Eddie’s eating a pack of almonds. He sees Buck glance up from his phone for a moment and make eye contact with Eddie and give him a small smile and headshake as Eddie grins back at him and pops an almond into his mouth. But that’s about the extent of their interaction and Chimney would have thought nothing of it before this morning.

Chim shakes his head and says, “I need a major rush to make it through this day,” as he takes a sip of his coffee.

“Wild night Chim?” Bobby asks.

“That would be Buck,” Chim comments.

Buck’s head shoots up from his phone in confusion and Eddie gives him a sideways glance.

“You have a wild night Buck?” Bobby asks.

Buck frowns and says, “Uh...nothing to tell,” he shrugs giving Chimney a look of confusion.

But all he gets is a scoff as Chimney leaves to go downstairs.

Hen and Bobby follow soon after and Eddie leans over and whispers, “Do they know about us?”

Buck sighs and shakes his head and says, “I hope not. We already have Athena on us, we don’t need Chim and Hen hating us too.”

Their first call is a domestic dispute on top of a medical issue and Athena is there to meet them.

Buck yawns when he gets off the truck and Athena gives him a look and asks, “Late night Buckley?”

“No caffeine just hasn’t kicked in yet,” Buck replies.

“The last thing you need is caffeine,” Bobby scoffs.

“Well if you were at all religious you’d be praying it kicks in soon, we got the couple from hell here,” she comments.

When they entered there’s the aforementioned couple. The woman's off to the side her arms crossed across her chest glaring at the male who’s holding his throat.

“Uh, what seems to be the problem?” Hen asks.

“My damn boyfriend swallowed my keys,” the girl tells them angrily.

“I didn’t want her to leave,” the man says hoarsely, his airway obviously constricted by the keys.

“And I assume you need your keys to leave him,” Hen replies.

“Yes.”

“Well let’s see if we can help you out,” Hen says before opening her bag.

“This is perfect, just perfect. I was hoping to be in Portland right now,” the girl complains.

Hen gets ready to look in the guy's mouth but the guy stops her and asks, “Is this gonna hurt?”

“You’ll have some discomfort but we’ll give you something for the pain,” she tells him.

“Do you know how stupid you make me look?” The girlfriend asks.

“I thought you would think this is funny,” he replies.

“Funny?” The girl asks in disbelief.

“Romantic?” The guy tries again.

“Like the therapist thing was funny and romantic?” She asks.

“That was funny,” the guy argues.

“No that was sad. He called my therapist, pretending to be his therapist, to find out what I’d said about him,” the girlfriend tells them.

“A little passive-aggressive,” Buck says raising his brows.

“Oh he is the king of passive-aggressive and he’s manipulative and needy,” she begins listing.

“Well that’s the trifecta,” Buck jokes.

“What do I win?” The guy asks getting a glare from the girl before she launches into a full speech.

“Do you really, seriously want to know why I’m leaving?! How about when you started insisting that I quit my job, right when I started to make more money than you? That should have been the last straw. No, the last straw should have been when I found out that those mysterious phone calls that you’ve been getting that you kept denying were from other women, were really coming from your mother. You don’t love me JP. You love to smother me. And if I could get you to admit that, then I could leave you with an ounce of respect. No, actually I can’t respect a man who swallowed my exit strategy,” she yells at him.

They load him up into the ambulance soon after that with it being decided that the extraction of the keys will have to be something done at the hospital.

Eddie whispers, “Is that how I should get you to stay for breakfast in the mornings? Swallow your keys?” Eddie jokes.

Buck smiles and shakes his head and shoves Eddie’s shoulder lightly as they walk back to the truck.

Hen and Athena watch on and Hen subtly rolls her eyes but it’s not so subtle for Athena who comments, “What’s wrong? You look more like me than you right now.”

Hen just shakes her head and says, “Nothing,” before getting in the ambulance.

Their next call is to a house where a teenage girl has passed out in the shower and is complaining of a fever and abdominal pain.

Hen crouches next to her and asks, “So you’re experiencing a fever and abdominal pain?”

“I think she got some bad bug on her trip to Mexico with her friends. I told her not to go to a third world country, but does she ever listen? Now I found her passed out in the shower this morning,” the girl's mother informs them.

“She’s been weak ever since, and she’s lost weight,” the dad adds.

“Barely,” the girl mutters.

“When was the trip?” Hen asks.

“A couple of weeks ago,” she replies before saying, “This is crazy. I just have a fever, I’m fine.”

“For god sakes Claire, I don’t want to spend my entire day dealing with you,” the mother fumes.

“How about we got somewhere else give her some privacy,” Chim says trying the move the parents out.

Hen starts palpitating the girl's abdomen and the girl jerks and says, “Ow. Don’t push so hard.”

Hen sighs and then asks, “Can you lift your shirt so I can examine your stomach?”

The girl lifts her shirt to reveal four small pink scars on the girl's stomach and asks, “Where’d you get these? You’ve had surgery recently. These scars are still pink.”

“Don’t tell my parents,” the girls whispers.

“You did this in Mexico so your parents wouldn’t know? What did you have done?” Hen asks.

“A gastric bypass,” Claire mutters.

“That’s normally a procedure done on obese patients to help them lose weight,” Hen states frowning.

  
  


The parents decide then to make a reappearance despite Chim’s efforts and the father says, “What? Claire? She doesn’t need to lose weight.”

The mother reminds Buck of his own mother or rather the woman she used to be. She’s blond, thin, and dressed in a pinstripe jacket and black skirt. He wouldn’t be surprised if she’s a lawyer like his mother.

“ Are you kidding? This means the world to her. But it is so typical of this girl to take the easy way out. She’s done it with everything since she was a little kid,” the mother comments.

“Nothing about this is gonna be easy if this surgery was done poorly which it seems it was. She could face a lifelong struggle with malnutrition,” Hen retorts.

The mother huffs and says, “I told her to watch the freshman 15, don’t eat junk, exercise. But when she came home Christmas, who had to take her out and buy her a brand-new pair of size-6 jeans cause she couldn’t get in the ones I got her last summer?”

“You know she tries so hard,” the father defends as the mother scoffs at him, “She does,” he continues, “She gets good grades. She gets A’s.”

“She has illegal surgery in Mexico. Claire?” The mother says.

“Before you guys start I know you’re mad,” Claire finally says.

“Disbelief, Claire. Just disbelief,” the mother replies.

“I’m just concerned. Where did you get the idea to do this?” The dad asks.

“The internet,” Claire says simply.

“Honey, there is a healthy way to lose weight,” her mother insists.

“Yeah, I tried that, but...it doesn’t work for me like it does for you,” Claire whispers.

“Hey, you don’t need to lose weight,” the dad interjects.

“What are you eating? And how much have you been working out? Most of the time, when people hit their target weight, they have to work to stay there,” the mother interrupts.

“Everyone gains weight in college, mom. It’s stressful...There’s not enough time for exercise. I just thought if I wasn’t worried about my diet, then I could focus more on my studies.”

“So you took yet another shortcut? Life doesn’t work that way, Claire.”

“Tina,” the dad says trying to stop her.

“What? You want to argue this? She has so much potential. If she would just apply herself,” the mother says looking at them all.

Buck frowns at her and replies, “Okay, I think we should focus on taking care of your daughter.”

The mother turns back to her daughter and says, “We’re taking you to the hospital to fix this.”

“No,” the girl cries, “I’d rather be thin.”

“Mother: Well I’m afraid the choice isn’t up to you,” the mother says.

So they load Claire into an ambulance looking even more downtrodden. Luckily she doesn’t have to ride with her mother though.

Eddie stands at Buck’s side and says, “Poor girl what was she thinking?”

Buck sighs and whispers, “She wants her mother’s approval. She wanted to please her.”

“And this damage is the result?” Eddie asks.

Buck huffs and says, “She gets good grades. She stays out of trouble. She’s smart. I just think she feels like nothing she does will ever be good enough for her mother. I think she’s killing herself to please her mother. It’s her mother. She worships the ground she walks on whether either of them thinks so. She didn’t do this for herself.”

“Experience?” Eddie asks.

Buck looks at him and quickly says, “No.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Eddie adds.

Buck stares at him for a second and then gives a short nod and says, “Yes.”

Eddie nods and rubs his shoulder before walking back with him to the fire truck.

They’re at the fire station for awhile doing chores and Hen goes up to Chimney and asks, “Have you seen Eddie?”

“Not as up close as Buck has,” Chimney says quite loudly as he’s moping the floor.

“Are you trying to get him in trouble? He’s our friend, Chimney,” Hen argues.

“Yeah and he’s being Buck who has gotten a million chances and throwing his career away,” Chimney replies before dropping the mop and walking away.

Hen shakes her head a bit and thinks about going after him. She shares Chimney’s concerns about how this could play out and affect team morale. But her concerns are more so directed at Eddie than at Buck. She knows how dedicated Buck is to his new lease on life. Of not reverting back to Buck 1.0 and he’s just gotten out of his relationship with Abby. His first real relationship and as much as she wants him to get back out there, she also thinks he’s still vulnerable. And she doesn’t know what Eddie’s doing with Buck, she still doesn’t know him all too well. But committing with a kid in the picture is a big step and she can’t help but think it’s rather just a fling than a big commitment for Eddie.

From her view, Eddie’s more stoic and plays his emotions close to the vest. He doesn’t reveal too much. Meanwhile, Buck is always very open with his emotions, he feels everything loudly and jumps into things with his whole heart. So she worries about him here.

The alarm rings out again soon after Hen’s conversation with Chimney and she spends the whole of the ride to the home staring at Eddie carefully.

The call this time is a two-year-old girl who seems to be having a seizure of some sort isolated to her left foot.

Buck instantly takes to the little girl who’s only two and holds her in his arms keeping her distracted while Chim talks to the parents and Hen examines her foot.

“And you noticed her foot twitching when?” Chimney asks the girl's mother.

“My foot,” the little girl says and Buck says, “Yes, your foot.”

“Just earlier today. But it...hasn’t stopped,” the mother answers Chim’s questions.

Buck’s gotten out the reflex hammer and given it to the girl and says to her, “You look like a princess. Do you know you’re a princess?”

The little girl examines the reflex hammer before saying, “It’s not lipstick.”

“It’s not lipstick?” Buck asked like he’s surprised and looks it over and says, “No, it’s not lipstick, see,” he says giving her a little tap on her knee and making her giggle.

“Do you want to do my shoulder?” He asks her.

She gives him a smack on the shoulder and he gives a small sound and bop and says, “Oh, good.”

“And nose?” She asks earning a laugh from Buck who’s a good sport and lets her give him a small wack on the nose with the thing.

Hen who’s been examining her foot glances up and sees Eddie watching Buck with a small smile as Chimney asks the mother, “And the twitching has gotten worse?”

“Yes,” the mother answers.

Hen then sees the girls whole leg start to shake and calls out, “It’s a focal left side seizure. Let’s get the diazepam running right now.”

Eddie jumps in and Buck adjusts the girl in his arms so he’s sitting as Eddie says, “Hey Jamie. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna put this on your arm, okay?”

“Isn’t that fun?” Buck asks her distracting her further which is easy cause the little girl has fallen for Buck’s charm already.

“This is going to feel cold,” Eddie tells the girl.

It’s a small inconspicuous needle for the IV and Buck calls out, “Oooo it’s a butterfly. And butterfly lands right there,” he says as Eddie inserts it quickly into her arm.

“Mmm...there we go,” Eddie smiles and goes to cover it up.

“Now a blanket for the butterfly,” Buck tells her.

It stops the seizure like that and Eddie smiles at the parents and says, “Amazing stuff isn’t it?”

The mother nods her head and Eddie turns to the girl and says, “Hey, you like spaceships?”

“Yeah,” the girl says.

“Should we take my first lieutenant Buck to the spaceship?” Eddie asks referring to the ambulance.

The mother smiles watching on and leans over to Chim and whispers, “They’re great.”

Chimney huffs and says, “Yeah, at just about everything.”

After the call, they go back to the station for lunch and Athena’s there for that, and Hen notices that Eddie and Buck suddenly disappear in different directions as soon as they see her.

Hen tells Athena about their last call and looks at Eddie who is still in sight and says, “Makes it kind of hard to hate him when he’s great with kids like that.”

“Why do you hate him?” Athena asks.

“Oh, no reason,” Hen says taking a bite of her sandwich.

Athena smiles a bit and says, “Ah, you know about him and Buck.”

“You know?” Hen asks.

“When are you gonna figure out that I know everything?” Athena asks.

Chimney comes and sits next to them and Hen says, “She knows.”

“What about firefighter-cest?” Chimney asks.

“Apparently it’s been going on for like ever,” Athena tells them shaking her head.

“Seriously? And you didn’t tell us?” Hen asks.

“Oh, you’re gossips huh?” Athena laughs.

“I’m not,” Chimney retorts.

“I am,” Hen says simply.

Chimney huffs and then says, “I can’t believe you’re not more pissed off about this. You of all people.”

“Oh, believe me, I am. I’ve told them to knock it off multiple times after I caught them in Eddie’s car on the night of that party Buck had,” Athena says.

“You caught them?” Chim asks.

“Oh, yeah, it was quite a sight. I’ve told them to stop. But if anything it’s just spurred them on,” Athen scoffs and gives another headshake.

“And you haven’t told Bobby still?” Hen asks.

“Oh, trust me, I will be if they step out of line.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be mad at them right now though,” Hen offers, getting a look from Athena and Chimney, “I mean they work hard all day. It’s not like it’s affected their work. Why should we care how they unwind.”

“You go ahead and take the high road. But I can’t help but get some pleasure out of making them jump through hoops for me,” Athena laughs.

Buck and Eddie are put at ease when Athena’s left and they can at least be in each other’s orbit again.

But that’s cut short cause their next call involves a run-in with Athena.

It’s a gunshot wound but when they get there it’s hardly a big scene, and the guy is waving them off, “Don’t worry my buddy shot me.”

“Your buddy?” Chimney asks.

“Yeah, just as a favor,” the guy says.

“On purpose?” Hen asks stunned.

“Hell yeah. He wasn’t trying to hurt me or nothing, but you know…” the guy shrugs as Hen tries to stop the bleeding from the guy's arm.

“But why?” Chimney asks.

“I like the scars. Look, everyone in town has tats, but my art is about commitment,” he explains.

“So, this is your art huh?” Chimney asks still in disbelief.

“Damn straight,” he replies.

“More like damn stupid,” Bobby decides.

“The bullet went all the way through, bounced off his ribs,” Hen states.

“I have another one still in my shoulder. Nice huh?” He asks smiling.

“You could hang it in the Lourve,” Hen muses rolling her eyes and going by to treating the wound.

“I have an Ethos. Why do anything unless you’re willing to go one step further than anybody else?” The guy explains.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” Buck offers getting a look from Bobby before shrugging slightly.

“Exactly,” the guy exclaims, “And pain is the great divide. My coach used to say, it’s all about how we process pain.”

“I hear we have a gunshot,” Athena says rolling up on the scene.

“Oh, don’t worry the pain is his Ethos,” Eddie says rolling his eyes.

“Pain as an Ethos,” Athena repeats before coming closer and says, “Well if it isn’t the tattooed masochist.”

“Had himself shot again,” Hen tells her.

“Glad to see he’s still stupid,” Athena scoffs.

“It’s his ethos,” Buck says getting a headshake from Bobby.

“Of course it is,” Athena says rolling her eyes.

“Officer Grant,” the man greets her.

“I prefer we stop meeting like this. Getting shot is pretty risky,” Athena says to him.

“Kind of the point,” Buck quips.

“The bullet seems to have broken your ribs and is causing a hemopneumothorax,” Hen tells the man.

“That sucks I guess,” he replies.

“There’s most likely blood in your lung,” Hen explains as if it’ll make a difference in his response.

“Sounds like the price of body art has gone up since your last gunshot,” Athena comments.

“Ah, no pain no gain right?” The guy smiles.

“That’s one way to look at it,” Chim mutters.

“I mean this is gonna leave a pretty sexy scar huh?” He grins.

“Don’t get any more crazy ideas,” Athena tells him.

“You really think my ideas are crazy?” He asks.

“I’m leaning that way,” Athena replies.

“I feel pretty dizzy,” the guy admits.

“Well, you’ve lost quite a bit of blood,” Hen retorts.

“Well this too shall pass,” he sighs before they finally load him into the ambulance.

Buck goes to the truck and Eddie goes to follow but Athena calls out, “Eddie, you can help clean up here a bit.”

Eddie sighs and sarcastically says, “Don’t worry I’ll mop the floors.”   
  


She gives him a look and asks, “Excuse me?”

“Sorry,” Eddie huffs, “that was inappropriate.”

“It’s not the only thing that’s inappropriate. While we’re on the subject,” she says, crossing her arms, “You care to tell me what you think you’re doing?”

“Look, I’ll jump through hoops if you want me to. But what I do when I leave work is my business,” Eddie fumes.

“Until half of your work knows your business.”

“We made a choice, and I know you don’t respect us for that choice. But I’m willing to live with the consequences,” he says seriously.

“Then I’ll have lots of hoops for you to jump through,” Athena counters.

“I’ve done everything at work that’s asked of me. I may not do it your way but it gets done. So whatever else you got, bring it on,” Eddie glares before striding off.

Their shift ends soon after and Eddie goes to the locker room and Hen’s there. He feels her eyes as he changes and says, “What?”

“Nothing...You headed over to Hewitt street?” She asks.

“No? I’m going to pick up…” he begins before connecting that Hewitt street is where Buck’s apartment is.

He sighs and says, “You know about Buck and I. Don’t you?”

Hen hums and gives him a hard look.

Eddie swallows and says, “It’s not...I’m not using him, Hen.”

She stares at him for another second before saying, “He’s pretty great you know?”

“I do know,” Eddie nods with a small smile.

Hen nods and grabs her stuff and gives him one last look and says, “Don’t hurt him,” before walking out.

Upstairs Buck is biting into a sandwich and Chim keeps giving him a glare and Buck sighs and sets his sandwich down.

“What?” He asks.

“Nothing,” Chim says shaking his head and going back to his own sandwich.

Buck stares at him for another moment before sighing and sitting down, “You know.”

“Yeah,” Chim says slyly, “I know.”

Buck swallows and says, “Well, do you want the long sordid version or do you want the short version where I slept with the guy who ended up being our new co-worker?”

“Neither,” Chimney shoots back.

“Come on Chim, cut me some slack,” Buck sighs.

“No, Buck. You do these things, and Bobby’s going to fire you again. You’re finally in his good graces and you’re what? Throwing it away for a good lay?”

“No,” Buck argues, “It’s not about the sex.”

“Then what, just some friendly good company alongside sex? You’re willing to possibly get fired over that? I mean Buck, what the hell are you doing?” Chimney yells at him.

Buck shifts and gives Chimney a sideways glance and Chimney pauses and takes a step back before saying, “Oh my God, you’re falling for him!”

“I am not!” Buck shoots back quickly his cheeks turning red.

“Oh you so are,” Chimney grins.

“No, I’m not,” Buck pouts and slaps at Chimney’s arms.

“So are,” Chimney laughs, “Oh, you poor poor boy.”

Buck glares at him and sighs, “You know that...it’s just that...he’s so...and I’m just...I’m having a hard time…” Buck says starting several sentences he can’t finish.

Chimney chuckles and stares at Buck smiling, “Yeah, you’re all mushy and warm and full of secret feeling,” Chimney decides, slapping Buck on the back.

Buck buries his face in his arms lowering it down to the counter and grumbles, “I hate you.”

Chim laughs before asking, “So...how hot is the sex?”

Buck lifts his head and gives Chimney a look and opens his mouth before Chimney holds up his hands and shakes his head and says, “Nevermind.”

Buck goes to Eddie’s right after work knocking on the door.

Eddie opens it and looks stunned, normally Buck only shows up after Christopher’s gone to bed.

“Hey,” Eddie says.

“Hey,” Buck says rocking back on his heels before saying, “So Hen and Chimney know.”

“Yeah,” Eddie sighs in the doorway.

“And Athena’s got us jumping through hoops,” Buck adds.

“She does,” Eddie nods.

“That’s a lot of complications I don’t like,” Buck says.

“Yeah,” Eddie says sadly leaning against the doorway his eyes dropping.

“Yeah,” Buck repeats and then sighs, “So I think it’s only fair that maybe we have a complication we both like.”

Eddie peeks up at him and Buck leans forward and kisses him softly and says, “So I’m going to cook dinner for you and Christopher. Do whatever it is you two do together on a Thursday night, I’m guessing homework and then free time? But I’m going to spend the night with you and then I’m gonna stay for breakfast in the morning.”

A smile breaks out over his face and he asks, “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Buck smiles kissing him once more before coming in and announcing, “Christopher, your actual favorite superhero is here!”

Eddie shuts the door and hears the sound of Christopher’s crutches moving quickly around the corner and then a shout of, “Bucky!”

When he turns he sees Christopher knock into Buck’s chest and get captured in Buck’s embrace. The sight makes him smile so wide his face hurts, which happens a lot that night.

It happens first when he watches Buck make them an actually edible homecooked meal, with Christopher at his side helping, while Eddie’s told to stay far away from the kitchen as if his mere presence might cause something to burst into flame.

After they’ve eaten and Christopher’s claimed it to be the best meal he’s ever had, Buck sits with Christopher while he does his math homework.

Buck asks questions rather than helps which is kind of funny to see as Christopher explains 2nd-grade math to Buck who seems to be listening attentively. That’s the second time that night that Eddie smiles so wide his face hurts.

As if it wasn’t enough, Buck and Christopher set up a fort with chairs and blankets and pillows in the living room before they all settle in underneath it to watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Mostly because Buck insists but also because Christopher seems to want to experience the movie with Buck there to comment on it. The third time that Eddie smiles so wide it hurts his face is after the pair have talked through the depth of the movie they seem to simultaneously fall asleep somewhere during the credits. Though only after the mid-credits scene of course.

He looks on as Christopher dozes on Buck’s shoulder his hand extended and resting on Buck’s chest, fingers curled in his shirt.

Buck’s arm is wrapped protectively around Christopher and his head is resting on top of his, and Eddie can’t really tell the pairs blond curls apart from each other.

He lets them lay there for a while getting up to clean the house a bit while the two of them just sleep underneath the fort. He eventually comes back and kisses both of their foreheads and they don’t stir in the slightest. Gently he leans down and kisses Buck on the lips to wake him and he watches as his blue eyes blink open at him.

“Hey,” Eddie whispers.

“Hey,” Buck breathes back tiredly.

“I think your fort was a success. Your both fell asleep in it.”

Buck turns his head a bit to look at Christopher in his arms and he sees the corner of Buck’s mouth twitch up sleepily into a smile.

“It is comfy,” Buck whispers.

“Mmm...we should get you both to bed though,” Eddie tells him, “I figure that even though it’s comfy, it’ll still hurt your back tomorrow.”

Buck whines softly but nods and sits up careful not to disturb Christopher who is still asleep. He watches as Buck lifts him carefully from the fort and Christopher’s head just falls against Buck’s shoulder.

Buck carries him to bed and Eddie’s happy that he had Christopher change into his pajamas before they all got in the fort, cause now they don’t have to wake Christopher up to do that. Buck simply puts him into bed and tucks him in carefully.

Eddie watches from the doorway and turns off the light once Buck exits and carefully shuts the door.

He’s quick to turn and pull Buck in by his waist and kiss him softly, “Thank you.”

“Mmmph,” Buck hums against Eddie’s lips, “For what?”

“For tonight. For being you,” Eddie whispers brushing his hand over Buck’s face.

“Bed?” Buck whispers his cheeks flushed but obviously ignoring the compliment.

“Bed,” Eddie agrees and walks him back there.

They drop to the bed and Buck whispers, “We can just sleep?”

They haven’t really just slept together without having sex first yet, it’s always been a sort of barrier, and in-between. Of this being real and this being just...sex.

“We could yeah if you want to,” Eddie says.

“Yeah,” Buck nods and cuddles close to Eddie burying his face into Eddie’s shoulder.

Eddie wraps his arms around Buck and sighs, “Thank God.”

Buck chuckles softly and whispers, “Yeah, thank God.”


	8. Save Me

Eddie sits in his kitchen watching as Buck stands on the other side of the counter and takes a bite of a chocolate cupcake before putting it down and huffing.

The kitchen is covered with flour and empty bowls and copious amounts of chocolate. Eddie eats a cupcake himself and sighs into the deliciousness.

“8 hours, 16 ounces of chocolate, and 32 cupcakes and they still don’t taste right,” Buck groans placing his hands against the counter and tossing his head back.

“Buck, they’re delicious. Christopher’s class is going to love them,” Eddie assures him taking another bite of the cupcake.

Christopher’s class is having a bake sale and rather than buying something from the store or having Eddie burn something, Buck offered to make cupcakes. However, despite the delicious resulting product, Buck’s still not satisfied with his efforts.

“There’s something missing,” Buck complains, “Some specific ingredient,” he huffs looking down at his note card and then rubbing at his temple, “Why can’t I remember?”

Eddie frowns and offers, “Well you said this was your mother’s recipe right? Why don’t you just call her and ask?”

Buck goes silent at that and takes off his apron and sighs, “I don’t want to call my mother. I’m going to go take a shower, get this flour out of my hair.”

Eddie frowns watching him go and as he thinks about it he really can’t think of all that much that he knows of Buck outside of his personality and work. He doesn’t know much about Buck personally.

Buck gets out of the shower about ten minutes later and Eddie stands in the doorway as Buck combs back his hair, a towel wrapped around his waist.

Eddie leans against the doorframe and says, “So let's go sleep at your place tonight?”

“What?” Buck asks looking back at Eddie and raising his brows.

“I mean why are we always sleeping at my house?” Eddie asks.

Buck gives him a look, the corner of his mouth raising as he turns and says, “Cause you have a son and I only have one bed.”

Buck moves past him and to the bedroom and Eddie follows watching Buck pull on a shirt and then his boxers.

“But sometimes Abuela has him and we still sleepover here. Do you even have one?” Eddie asks him.

“Have what?” Buck questions pulling his jeans on.

“A place. With a closet. With your stuff in it. Your personal stuff. Do you even have one of those?”

Buck goes to the kitchen and Eddie follows him again as Buck begins cleaning up his baking mess.

“You’ve been there,” Buck tells him.

“I’ve been outside,” Eddie counters as Christopher makes his way out and sits at the table.

Buck grabs the cereal box off the top of the fridge and pours it into a bowl and fills it with milk and places it in front of Christopher quickly before ruffling his hair, getting a beaming smile from Christopher in doing so.

“But you know it exists,” Buck grins, “Besides I like it here. And you said so yourself that you liked having your things around and sleeping in your own bed.”

Buck grabs the Muesli and pours it into a bowl as Eddie watches and changes the subject commenting, “You’re like a health nut, aren’t you? You eat Muesli every morning.”

“No, I don’t,” Buck argues.

“Yeah, you do,” Christopher giggles.

Buck blinks at him and Eddie adds, “The last seven days at least.”

“Oh come on, I haven’t been here a whole week. Have I?” Buck asks and looks like he’s trying to calculate the passing of time in his head.

“Yeah,” Christopher answers.

“See weird,” Eddie tells him.

Christopher simply shrugs his shoulders and says, “I like it.”

This makes Eddie and Buck both smile and Buck takes a seat next to Christopher and strokes his curls for a moment before saying, “Yeah, me too kid.”

Eddie leans down and kisses Buck’s cheek and runs his fingers through Buck’s curls messing up his recently combed hair.

Buck just grins and then goes back to eating his cereal.

They drop Christopher off at school together before going to work. Buck’s been lying and saying his car’s getting repaired for the last week to explain it when really it’s collecting dust in Eddie’s driveway. Hen and Chimney know it’s bullshit, but it’s more so for the captain and the rest of the crew.

Buck gets out of Eddie’s car and the captain spots them and says, “God Buck, when are they going to get your car back to you. It’s been a week. Maybe I should pick you up, make things easier on Eddie.”

“No, it’s fine, his place is on the way to Christopher’s school and Christopher enjoys seeing him in the mornings,” Eddie explains adjusting his bag on his shoulder as they walk in.

The captain nods and Hen grins and says, “Are you sure Christopher is the only one who enjoys seeing Buck in the mornings?”

“Shut up,” Buck tells her as she smiles widely before laughing.

  
  


Their first call has them going to a dental practice and tending to a teenage girl.

Chimney goes to the girl and asks, “So, Devo, you just had a root canal correct?”

“Yeah, and now I can’t stop bleeding, literally. And now I’m stuck with you guys.”

Hen begins examining her first listening to her heart then taking her temperature while Chimney examines her mouth.

“I think I can hear a heart murmur and she has a fever,” Hen says standing up.

“If I’m gonna die can you call my mom and dad,” the girl says in a deadpan tone.

“You’re not dying,” Hen assures her.

“We’re just going to transport you to the hospital and get you some coagulants to stop the bleeding,” Chimney adds.

They begin moving her and Buck asks, “So what kind of name is Devo anyway?”

“80s rocker. My parents did too much blow. I just call myself Esther,” she replies.

They lift her onto the gurney and Buck takes note of her very long skirt that goes to her ankles and says, “Nice skirt Esther. What are you Amish?”

“Buck!” Bobby shouts and shakes his head before the girl retorts, “Get a life. Haven’t you ever seen an Orthodox Jew?”

“Sorry,” Buck says shortly walking alongside the gurney.

“You know what it’s like being a teenager these days?” She complains, “My friends spend most of their time screwing around and getting wasted. At least I have God.”

“I think of myself more as a pagan,” Buck comments.

“So you don’t believe in anything,” she huffs.

“My mother used to pray to Saint Jude for me,” Buck shrugs.

“How appropriate Patron Saint of lost causes,” the girl sighs as they lift her into the ambulance.

Buck gives a little shrugs and figures that quirk of his mother makes a lot more sense now in context.

Eddie feels like in this small interaction with a patient that Buck’s revealed more about himself than he has to him in some respects.

When they get back to the station and are doing their chores Eddie sweeps his way over to where Buck is rolling up the hose. And sets in on his inquisition which Buck immediately tries to shoulder off.

“It’s just that I hardly know anything about you,” Eddie complains.

“You know I’m from Pennsylvania, you know I’m a firefighter,” Buck begins listing.

“Yeah, that’s nothing Buck. What about your friends?” Eddie asks.

Buck gives him a look and says, “You know them all. Hen, Chimney, Bobby…”

“No one else? What did you do on your days off before I came around? These are important questions.”

“Ah, important to who?” Buck asks.

Eddie moves closer and whispers harshly, “We’re having sex nearly every night and you sleepover too. I think I deserve details.”

“You have more details than most,” Buck retorts crossing his arms.

“See this is going somewhere weird,” Eddie huffs, “I want facts, and until I get them, my pants are staying on.”

Buck’s mouth drops and he stares at Eddie before saying, “Or you could just roll with it. Be flexible. See what happens.”

“I’m not flexible,” Eddie argues.

Buck gets a wide grin and says, “Oh, there I disagree.”

Eddie rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.

Buck stares at him and then sighs and moves closer and rubs Eddie’s shoulder and says, “We’ll find these things out Miel Oso,” Buck whispers close to his ear before pulling away and saying, “that’s the fun part, okay?”

Eddie rolls his shoulder and shrugs and Buck frowns before the alarm sounds and they all bolt for the trucks.

This time they respond to a climber incident and Eddie and Buck have to work their way down to reach him.

They do and Eddie immediately jumps to examining him and says, “Okay Mr. Walker does that hurt?”

“I can’t feel anything until you get to my thigh,” the man pants.

“Okay, try wiggling your toes,” Eddie tries.

Nothing happens and the man asks, “Are they moving?”

“No,” Eddie huffs.

“Damn. I could about ten minutes ago,” the man informs them.

“Okay, it’s a spinal injury so let's get a neck brace on him and a support,” Eddie tells Buck who gets to it quickly.

“It was just a small drop,” the man explains, “I was belayed...What’s wrong with me?”

Eddie moves to the man's legs and raises them up on his palms and says, “Hold your legs up.”

The man can’t remove any of his weight and hold them himself and Eddie shakes his head.

“Should I be scared now?” He asks.

“Just try and relax,” Eddie assures him.

“I can’t move my legs at all now,” the man says as they strap him in to take him up.

“The paralysis is moving quickly, we need to transport him now,” Eddie says to Buck who nods his head.

They get up top and get him on a gurney and the guy says, “My hands can’t move.”

Buck offers his hand and says, “Squeeze my fingers.”   
  


Nothing.

Eddie presses in different areas asking if he feels sensation getting a no each time.

“Okay, let's go,” Eddie says and they lift him into the ambulance.

Once they’ve dropped the man off at the hospital Buck gets out of the ambulance alongside Eddie and says, “That was intense.”

Eddie’s just silent and Buck sighs heavily, “What is your problem?”

“Just give me something to go on. Anything. What are your grandparent's names?” Eddie says throwing his arms up.

“I don’t have grandparents,” Buck grumbles.

“What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Where’d you spend your summer vacations?” Eddie asks.

Buck rolls his eyes and says, “Lighten up. It’ll be good for you.”   
  


“Oh don’t you tell me to lighten up. I’ll lighten up when I feel light,” Eddie retorts.

Buck looks back at Eddie and smiles and gives a headshake before climbing into the firetruck.

Eddie sits with Hen at lunch and says, “Can I ask you something?”

“Trouble in paradise?” Hen asks, “Can you maybe hold out on the breakup? It’s been five weeks and I had the over three months mark.”

“Well, technically we’ve been dating for seven weeks,” Eddie comments.

“Good to know,” Hen grins.

“And we’re not breaking up. It’s just he’s not giving me anything.”

“In bed?” Hen asks raising her brows.

“No, there’s a ton of that...nevermind...It’s just I feel like I don’t know a lot about him. Like his family or his likes and dislikes, and he won’t just give them to me. That’s weird isn’t it?” Eddie asks.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t know most of those things either and I’ve worked with him for years. I assume he was raised by wolves or maybe monkeys. And I only know his likes and dislikes when he suddenly announces that he loves something or hates something,” Hen shrugs.

“So it’s not just me?” Eddie asks.

“Some people don’t care to share all that much. It’s somewhat surprising that Buck’s the type. It makes you wonder how he can talk so much when there are big gaps in which he doesn’t talk about. But no I don’t think it’s you,” Hen sighs.

“Right, still wish he’d talk to me,” Eddie huffs leaning back.

“Maybe just observe or give him time to offer it up. Talk about yourself, maybe he’ll respond with his own stuff in response,” Hen offers.

“Okay,” Eddie nods.

They end up getting called to a therapist's office where the therapist explains the patient's case to them giving them the patient's history.

They walk into the office where the man is clearly annoyed and Buck asks, “So you’re experiencing psychic visions?”

“Yes,” the man says and Buck glances at the therapist cause this seems more like something for a mental health facility to handle.

“No, he isn’t. I think they’re seizures,” she explains.

“It says here he talks to dead people,” Eddie remarks looking at the history.

“He thinks his seizures are visions,” the therapist sighs.

“They’re not seizures. I’m psychic,” the man insists.

“Of course you are and I’m a chicken,” Eddie replies in a bad mood.

“Sensitivity, Eddie,” Bobby cautions.

“Okay, let’s start our workup,” Hen says shaking her head and going to examine the man's eyes.

“Work me up, work me down. I’m telling you it’s a waste of time,” the guy says.

“Well humor us. Can you grip my fingers, please?” Hen asks.

The guy does but he just stares off and Hen calls out, “Chimney…”

“Mr. Duff?” Chimney asks.

“Mr. Duff? Are you okay?” Buck asks as the man stares straight at him before blinking back into consciousness.

“I’m looking at you, but it’s the strangest thing. I’m hungry for a chocolate cupcake,” he states.

Buck pauses and says, “What did you say?”

“A chocolate cupcake. Maybe one of those fudgy things white squiggle on the frosting,” the man explains drawing the exact squiggle that Buck puts on the cupcakes in vanilla frosting in the air.

Eddie rolls his eyes and crosses his arms and says, “What does he still have chocolate on his face or in his hair or something?”

“What are you talking about?” The man asks confused.

“You. I know the drill, so keep it up. Next, you’ll be reading his cards telling him his dead uncle is in the room,” Eddie replies annoyed.

“Is he?” The guy asks leaning forward.

“I don’t have a dead uncle,” Buck comments.

Chimney huffs and says to Hen, “I think we’re looking at epilepsy.”

“You think I’m epileptic?” The man asks. “That’s so not right,” he adds.

“You’re really good at reading people aren’t you, telling them what they want to hear?” Eddie suddenly says arguing with the man again.

“ There’s a really unfortunate alignment of Saturn in the house of Jupiter,” the man replies with a grin.

“ I know what you’re doing. You watch people read their body language. You say chocolate cupcakes and Buck leans towards you so you think you’re on the right track. Not only do you know you’re having seizures but you’re milking it,” Eddie adds.

“Eddie calm down,” Buck says grabbing his shoulder which Eddie shrugs off.

“Yeah, calm down honey bear,” the man says which makes Buck and Eddie go still.

It’s what Buck called him this morning in Spanish and he looks at Buck who’s biting his lip.

“ What? What did you just call me?” Eddie asks.

The man smiles and leans forward and whispers, “Don’t worry the azul ojo cachorro will open up with time.”

Eddie glances at Buck who shifts uncomfortably and Eddie turns back to the man and shakes his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Let’s get him transported,” Chimney says breaking the awkward moment and getting him on the gurney.

They start to wheel him out but the man says, “Wait,” and then looks at Buck and says, “For your recipe one tablespoon coconut extract.”

Eddie turns to Buck whose mouth drops before muttering, “That’s it.”

  
  


When they get back to the station Eddie sits in the locker room and Buck comes in and sits down beside him quietly.

“You take everything on faith. How do you know what’s real and what’s not?” Eddie finally says.

Buck shrugs and says, “You just do.”

Eddie nods and Buck grabs his hand in his and squeezes it gently.

Eddie smiles just a bit before saying “You know some people would call this a relationship. The kind where you exchange keys, leave your toothbrush over.”

Buck laughs and says, “Who? Who would call it that?”

“Me. I would,” Eddie decides.

Buck looks at him and smiles, “Okay.”

“But I need you to show me something. Give me a reason to believe it is for you,” Eddie sighs and gets up.

They drive to Eddie’s place but when they get there Buck decides to go home wherever that is for him.

After Christopher finishes his homework and the pair of them play a video game Christopher says, “I miss Buck.”

“Yeah, I do too.”

“I like it better when he’s here,” Christopher adds.

“Me too,” Eddie sighs and kisses Christopher’s forehead.

He misses Buck when he tucks Christopher in and he misses him when he goes to sleep that night. He misses him when he wakes up and he eats one of the chocolate cupcakes that Buck doesn’t think are good enough and thinks about him. He drops Christopher off at school alone and prepares to spend the day alone. Carla ends up picking Christopher up cause Eddie goes grocery shopping when he realizes they really don’t have anything in the fridge that doesn’t require Eddie to not cook and possibly burn it.

When he gets back though he sees Buck’s car in the driveway and practically rushes in with the groceries and finds Buck sat with Christopher on the couch eating a chocolate cupcake.

“Buck,” Eddie whispers from the doorway.

Buck looks up at him and smiles not standing cause Christopher is tucked under his arm and leaned against his chest.

“Hey,” Buck says softly.

Eddie puts the groceries on the counter and quickly drops onto the couch and presses himself into Buck’s side unabashedly.

Buck’s arm comes around him and pulls him close and he feels Buck’s lips brush against his temple.

“You’re here,” he whispers into Buck’s shoulder.

“Of course I am, miel oso,” Buck whispers back and leans his head against Eddie’s.

“We missed you,” Eddie admits.

“I missed you two, too. Turns out I kind of can’t be away from the Diaz boys for more than a day,” Buck tells him.

“Buck...you don’t have to tell me anything yet. I shouldn’t pressure you into sharing,” Eddie says.

“No, uh...you were right,” Buck whispers, “and I’m ready to take the next step, so uh I packed a bag for you and Christopher.

“A bag?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah,” Buck replies.

“Where are we going?” 

“Just trust me,” Buck says.

So they all get in Buck’s car and Eddie recognizes it instantly when they pull up outside of Buck’s apartment.

Buck walks them up, carrying Christopher in his arms and opening the door to his apartment. It’s rather basic and bare except for a great pillow fort that’s been set up in the living area. It’s even more well crafted than the one Christopher and Buck set up in his living room. 

“Welcome to my humble abode. Christopher how about you go test out the pillow fort and see if it meets our high standards,” Buck says as he sets Christopher down.

Christopher happily goes and Buck leads Eddie over to the kitchen and offers him a cupcake and says, “I finally got them right.”

Eddie takes a bite and yeah it’s somehow a lot better.

“Was it…” Eddie begins.

“Coconut extract? Yeah, it was,” Buck smiles a bit.

“So the crazy guy was right,” Eddie huffs.

“Yeah, about everything really,” Buck states.

Eddie raises his brows and gives a small shrug and Buck sighs and says, “Alright. So, my mother’s maiden name is Mulaney. She’s a lawyer, my father’s an architect. I have an older sister named Maddie. I like mint chocolate ice cream and I know Spanish because I worked in South America at a wet bar one summer. I like biking and sometimes I do races. I don’t know most pop culture references, I didn’t watch a lot of movies growing up. I tried to be a navy seal before becoming a firefighter but they said I didn’t have the right temperament. My favorite book is Imperfect: An Improbable Life. My favorite band is Queen and my favorite color is red. All reds, I even really like pink. This thing near my eye is a birthmark, kids used to make fun of me for it in school. And I live in this apartment and I just got it. I used to live at Abby’s place mostly and now I live here, but it’s not really home for me yet.”

Buck gives him a long list of little facts, lets him in, lets him know him and then sighs and says, “So that’s it. That’s what you’ve learned about me for now. The rest, you’re just going to have to take on faith for the time being.”

Eddie processes it and he feels Buck watching him carefully and Eddie takes a look around the apartment again before turning around and smiling at Buck and pulling him in and kissing him deeply.

Buck kisses him back and smiles shyly against his lips, pressing his face into Eddie’s shoulder when the kiss ends.

Eddie rubs his hand up Buck’s back and pulls him closer and says, “Come on. Let’s go make this place feel more at home by watching a movie in your fort. Maybe Christopher and I can help get you on board with more pop culture than just marvel movies.”   
  


Buck smiles and follows happily tucked into Eddie’s side.


	9. Who's Zoomin' Who?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of this book with each one being based off that season of Grey's so there will be more to follow as this is a series.

Three weeks later they’re inching on the three-month mark and Buck is well aware of the bet Chimney and Hen have on them. Eddie didn’t have to tell them, he knows their ways and how they get pleasure from betting on these sorts of things. He knows that in a week Hen will have won and with it, Buck will have won too cause it means he’s maintained a healthy relationship with Eddie. One in which they’ve both been in each other’s vicinity for, unlike most of his relationship with Eddie.

He wakes up in Eddie’s bed like he does most days, though Buck’s apartment isn’t as off-limits as it used to be. But Eddie’s place is still their default, it feels more like home than his own apartment. Though his apartment feels a lot more like home when Christopher and Eddie are there.

Buck rolls over and sees Eddie’s face still soft with sleep. His face looks free of lines, which is a relief since Buck noticed the other night that Eddie looked a little stressed. Eddie assured him he was fine and kissed away his worries before he decided to spread out on top of Buck on the couch and wouldn’t move even when Christopher tried to prod him into a sitting position. Which was how Buck ended up having both Diaz boys fall asleep on his chest while watching Back to the Future, one of the movies on Eddie’s list of pop culture movies that Buck has to see. Buck then had the task of getting both of them to bed, Christopher obviously being the easy one to get to bed, while Eddie grumbled about moving from his position.

Buck slowly moves himself from underneath Eddie’s arm and turns his head kissing the man's bicep gently before getting up. He stretches his limbs and changes so that he can prepare breakfast before the boys both get up. He makes eggs, bacon, and toast and then goes into the bedroom to wake Eddie up.

His phone rings and his pocket after he enters the room and Buck quickly glances back at Eddie sleeping and walks over to the window across the room.

“Hello?” Buck answers.

“Mr. Buckley, this is Ms. Henry from the nursing home. I’m calling about your mother,” the woman says on the other end of the phone.

Buck swallows his stomach dropping automatically at the mere mention of his mother. He scratches his head nervously and asks, “Is she all right?”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that,” the woman says.

Buck gives another glance back at Eddie and asks, “Can I call you later then?”

“Uh, I just want to…,” the nurse begins.

Buck sees Eddie stir behind him and quickly whispers, “I have to go,” and hangs up the phone.

Eddie groans and stretches before looking at him, “Oh, my God. Who is calling you at this hour?”

Buck smiles tightly and shrugs and says simply, “It’s a wrong number.”

Eddie gets up while Buck goes and helps Christopher get ready, which Eddie notices goes a lot faster with Buck. Perhaps because Christopher doesn’t seem to mind when Buck helps him out. Something that Eddie jokingly complained to Hen about a week ago.

“Buck’s just new and like a novelty right now. So all Buck’s time is probably something Christopher really cherishes right now. It’s just new and he probably likes having someone else around too,” Hen shrugs.

“Yeah. It’s been just us for a while. And Buck’s great with him,” Eddie smiles.

“Why shouldn’t he be? The boys a kid himself,” Hen laughs.

Buck has Christopher ready quickly and at the table in front of a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast before Eddie’s even gotten out of the shower. He can hear their laughter ringing out from the kitchen as soon as he steps out of it. It makes him pick up the pace wanting to join them as soon as he can.

“Oh, I definitely think dogs just think we’re weirdos. They’re like who are these giant two-legged weirdos who give out food and love? They’re probably always trying to stop being weird and walk on four legs instead of two,” Eddie hears Buck say to Christopher making him laugh.

Eddie steps out and smiles before saying, “It sounds like fun out here.”

Buck and Christopher smile in his direction before his phone starts ringing.

He pulls it out of his pocket and the smile immediately falls from his face and he quickly hits decline and shoves it back into his pocket.

“Aren’t you going to get that?” Buck asks frowning at him, “It could be important.”

“It isn’t,” Eddie sighs before forcing a smile back on his face as he says, “But uh, Carla and I went to check out one of the schools and found one that seems really great. The interview went well too,” Eddie smiles.

“That’s great,” Buck proclaims, “Isn’t it Christopher? It’s going to be awesome,” Buck says enthusiastically, tickling Christopher for good measure.

Christopher’s smile comes easy and he repeats, “Awesome,” in the same excited tone.

Eddie walks into the kitchen further and hums, “Breakfast?”

Buck grabs his plate off the counter and sets it on the table, kissing Eddie once he’s seated.

Eddie hums and looks at Buck once he sits down himself and goes back to chatting happily with Christopher. He smiles happily and grins down into his eggs before eating them.

When they get to the fire station that morning they’re a little early and Eddie has Buck pinned up against his truck for a bit and kisses him gently and says, “So I was thinking once our shifts are over and we’ve taken a nap maybe we could go out. On a proper date.”

Buck chuckles and says, “That sounds great actually.”

“Good,” Eddie whispers before his mouth finds Buck’s again.

“What am I invisible?” A voice asks and they turn to see Chimney staring at them.

Eddie smiles a bit and nods still pressed against Buck and holding him by his jacket, “Chimney.”

“You two really are just in the throws of love aren’t you?” Chimney asks.

“Yep, worried about losing your money?” Buck asks.

“You know about that?” Chimney asks.

“Well Hen did say something to Eddie, but I knew before that. I know how you guys are,” Buck says disengaging from Eddie and walking alongside both of them into the firehouse.

Their first call of the day comes shortly after they’ve all dressed and when they get on the scene Bobby debriefs them.

“Male, mid-forties with severe abdominal pain and found blood in his urine, just before passing out. He’s conscious now,” Bobby states as they walk in.

Bobby stops in front of them suddenly and says, “David?”

The man looks at him and then asks, “Bobby?”

Bobby stares for a moment before saying, “It’s been…”

“Years,” David finishes before looking at the rest of them, “We were in the fire academy together for a time back in Minnesota. I see he’s gone from torturing his fellow recruits to torturing you all. Am I right?”

“Be very careful how you answer that,” Bobby cautions them holding up a finger and looking at them all.

Hen and Chimney are examining him and David laughs and says, “I could tell some stories.”

“David, I’m possibly saving your life. So now is not the time to cross me,” Bobby warns him.

“It isn’t anything too serious is it?” David frowns.

“That’s what my crew is going to try and figure out.”

“Hard to tell,” Hen states, “Probably need the hospital to figure that one out for us. But I’m guessing something is wrong with his bladder.”

“Just don't worry till you have to,” Bobby assures David. “Hen and Chiney will be accompanying you to hospital,” Bobby turns to them and says, “This is one of my oldest friends so take good care of him.”

Hen and Chimney nod and load him into the ambulance. As Bobby turns he pauses watching as Buck and Eddie walk over to the firetruck leaning into each other's space whispering. He stands and watches for a while longer and notes how Eddie climbs into the firetruck and immediately reaches out to pull Buck in with him. Buck hardly needs help into the fire truck and it’s curious how close the pair have grown over the past couple months. Bobby notices that they’ve been in each other orbit constantly. It’s curious but Bobby puts it on the back burner for later.

Buck’s doing chores around the station when his phone rings again and he goes off to a quiet corner before answering it.

“Hello,” Buck answers.

“Hi, it’s Ms. Henry again. Is this a better time?” The nurse asks.

“Sorry about this morning. I wasn’t alone and...what were you calling about?” Buck asks running his fingers through his hair.

“I just wanted to remind you that tonight’s our monthly family dinner. You know you haven’t been to any of our family functions,” the nurse tells him.

Probably because he doesn’t feel like he’s ever had much of a family outside of the 118.

But he replies, “Yeah. You just have to understand, I’m a firefighter. My time really isn’t my own.”

“Our residents really respond to these events. They always enjoy themselves which is so rare. I think it’s important that you attend,” the woman comments.

Buck bites his lip and thinks maybe he can manage to leave for some point during his shift and clear it with Bobby. Buck doesn’t really have many emergencies or times where he’s had to take off in the middle of the shift so he thinks Bobby would let him go this once.

Buck sighs and says, “I’ll be there. Or...I’ll try to be there. I’ll definitely try.”

He hangs up the phone turning it in his hands nervously. He’s been bad at going to visit his mother lately, mostly cause he’s had other things to focus on. Namely, Eddie and Christopher. He spends nearly every free moment with them, whereas he used to have more free moments to just fill up and he figured going to see his mother could just be one of those things.

Then there’s the fact that he compartmentalizes his life. It used to be sectioned off into three categories of work, dating, and family or rather just his mother. Nowadays dating and work have kind of intersected. But family has always been a separate thing, kept far away from his work and far away from his dating life. He didn’t even tell Abby despite her having similar issues and taking care of her mother. He still saw a difference between their situations though that kept him from discussing it. She loved her mother and devoted nearly every ounce of her energy to her care. Buck...he and his mother weren’t close, taking care of her was simply an obligation, a job nobody but him was coming to take. One he resented and felt burdened by. So he kept his mouth shut, didn’t tell Abby about his mother, continued to keep those parts of his life separate.

Eddie spots him and comes over to him and asks, “You okay Buck?”

“Yeah, perfect, why?” Buck answers quickly.

“I don’t know you took a call and then just sort of started staring off,” Eddie recollects.

Buck smiles softly and says, “Ah, it was nothing. Just started to daydream I guess.”

Eddie nods and seems to open his mouth to say something else before the alarm starts ringing again and they all dash off.

When they enter the house the man is beet red with embarrassment and says, “It’s nothing. I just seem to be having this skin thing going on, like a rash really. I just, I can’t get close enough to really see it and it freaked me out a little when I first saw it.”

“Alright, let’s see it,” Hen says opening her kit.

The man turns a darker shade of pink and swallows as he says, “Um...it’s kind of located in an um...you know a private…”

“We’re medics. We’ve seen it all. You’re saying you have a rash on your penis,” Chimney concludes.

“Yeah...uh, I think I can describe it. Um...it’s red,” the man begins causing Buck to turn slightly around and stifle a laugh alongside Eddie.

“Just show us and we can get this over with quickly,” Chimney tells the man.

He nervously pulls down his pants and Buck doesn’t envy them one bit as Chimney has to examine the guys...penis.

“So?” The guy asks nervously after a minute or so has gone by.

“Yep, you’ve got syphilis,” Chimney states very matter of factly.

“Oh my God,” the man exclaims.

“Don’t feel too bad,” Chimney says with a bit of humor, “It’s kind of going around the city right now. Lots of calls and cases.”

“The best way to avoid this is to wear a condom,” Hen offers before standing and asking, “Do you think you can drive yourself to the hospital?”

“I think I’m gonna pass out,” the man replies looking a little green.

“Wonderful,” Hen sighs.

“Don’t worry. A couple of doses of penicillin should knock it right out,” Chimney offers the guy.

“How am I going to tell my girlfriend this?” The man asks distraught, “Hey, Julia, I’ve got the syph how about you?”

“Well I wouldn’t say it quite like that,” Buck grins.

“No, it’s good advice, really good advice,” the man nods and says sarcastically.

“You got any advice for him, Buck?” Chimney asks, “I mean you must have had something like this before, right?” Chim grins.

“I never talk about my penis with my co-workers,” Buck says before realizing the obvious caveat, he feels Eddie grin beside him and elbows him in the side as Chimney asks, “You sure about that Buck?”

“Let’s just give this guy his penicillin,” Hen says obviously over this.

Hen grabs the shot and has the guy turn over and as she’s about to insert the needle into the man's ass he says, “Wait, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

Hen sighs and says, “It’s a shot of penicillin it’s not all that complicated.”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” the man says sounding as if he might want to throw up.

“I mean do you want to get rid of this or not dude?” Buck asks.

“Okay, okay,” the man says allowing Hen to inject them.

When they get back Bobby’s waiting having stayed behind and asks, “So how’d the call go?”

“We saved a man from a future of festering sores and insanity,” Buck proclaims.

Bobby groans and says, “That reminds me. Everyone huddle up.”

Everyone gathers in front of them and Bobby sighs, “As you may know syphilis is spreading around the city. In fact, four captains, three chiefs, and six cadets have already been diagnosed with it. The City Health Department has asked me to inform you all that there are over 70,000 new cases every year. Undiagnosed, it can lead to blindness, insanity, and death. So if you’re having unprotected sex, please get tested,” Bobby huffs and then adds, “End of announcement.”

Everyone chuckles to themselves slightly and Buck and Eddie head to the locker room together.

Buck swallows and says, “So...just for the record you’d tell me if I need to get tested right?”

Eddie looks at him stunned and leans in to whisper harshly, “You think I have syphilis?”

“No I don’t,” Buck says raising his hands, “It’s just for a good amount of time there we never made any rules or anything. We never said we had rules and I mean I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

Eddie huffs and says, “When would I have time to go out and get syphilis? You’re a handful enough as it is,” he smiles, “Besides we’re practically a condom ad.”

Buck grins and whispers, “Okay.”

“And I don’t have to get tested either?” Eddie asks.

“No, you don’t have to get tested,” Buck smiles.

Eddie sighs and happily says, “Maybe we should make some rules.”

Buck smiles and whispers, “Okay.”

“Okay,” Eddie whispers back before cupping Buck’s cheek and kissing him gently stroking his cheek.

Buck presses up into it without much thought before pulling away and smiling before going to handle one of the station chores.

Buck looks for Bobby to ask about getting off for awhile around dinner time and as he’s searching he hears Bobby call out, “Buck.”

Buck turns and smiles and walks towards him, “Oh hey Bobby, I was looking for you I wanted to ask…” he begins.

“Buck,” Bobby says again before adding, “He’s your coworker.”

Buck freezes then and swallows and says, “I...you saw us…”

Bobby stares at him hard and then says, “You’re making a mistake. A big one.”

Buck bites the inside of his cheek so hard it bleeds and the straightens standing his ground, “It’s not a mistake. It’s real.”

Bobby frowns harder and then says, “I’d like to speak to you both at the end of your shift.”

Buck’s stomach rises in his chest and he feels like he might throw up as Bobby walks away.

At lunch, he drops his head down to the table and says, “This is awful.”   
  


Chimney sighs and says, “Well there’s a lot of secrets going around here. One was bound to come out.”

“Bobby might fire us,” Buck mutters.

Chimney shrugs and takes a bite of his sandwich before saying, “Everybody’s got a secret. Just be glad yours is out in the open,” and slaps Buck on the back.

Buck sits up and gives him a look and says, “Then what’s yours?”

Chimney laughs and grins before saying, “Tell me your other ones and I might tell you mine. I’m sure you’ve got some serious skeletons in your closet Buck.”

Buck rolls his eyes and then turns in his chair and says, “What’s in my closet is none of your business.”

“Well I don’t have any secrets,” Hen shrugs, “My life is boring,” she says happily and pops a chip in her mouth.

Eddie who’s otherwise been quiet and in thought ominously says, “Everybody’s got something to hide.”

They all turn to him and Hen laughs and says, “Do tell.”

If anything Eddie is mostly saved by the alarm going off again as it sends them all running straight for the trucks.

When they get to the home it’s a man with a descended abdomen and Hen jumps in and begins feeling along the man's abdomen.

“Mr. Franklin, how long has your abdomen been like this?” Hen asks.

“It’s been getting bigger for a while,” the man mutters.

“I told him something was wrong. No one gets fat like this so fast,” his wife tells them.

“Everybody told him,” the man's daughter grumbles.

“He has dullness to percussion and spider angiomas,” Chim asserts.

“What does that all mean?” The daughter asks.

“It means there’s definitely something going on and the hospital will need to run some tests,” Chim tells her.

“Great. What’s that gonna cost us this time?” The daughter huffs.

“Alice, don’t,” the man's wife cautions.

“I believe there’s fluid in the peritoneal cavity,” Hen tells Chim.

“What’s that?” The wife questions.

“The abdomen and the swelling seems to be pressing against your lungs which is why you’re having trouble breathing. Might be a symptom of liver disease,” Hen explains to her.

“And it all comes together,” the daughter says throwing her hands up.

“Alice! Not now!” The mother asserts.

Hen turns and asks, “Is there something we should know?”

There’s silence before the man grumbles, “I drink a bit.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” the daughter comments rolling her eyes.

“That’s enough out of you,” the man warns angrily and pointing his finger out at his daughter.

Buck feels tense just being around the family, it reminds him of his own home. Always being hushed by his mother and a drunk father. Though this girl's mother seems more well-meaning than his own. But the father reminds him of his, even just the sound of his voice, the low bass voice.

Hey!” The girl pipes up in a way Buck never would until the most extreme times for his or Maddie’s sake. “I’m only here for mom, to make sure you don’t pull any of your usual crap,” the daughter tells him.

“So, how many drinks are we talking here?” Hen asks.

“Six to eight a day,” the daughter offers up.

“An alcoholic by any standard,” Buck mutters.

“He’s a good man,” the wife defends him suddenly sobbing.

“Please, he’s been killing himself for years,” the daughter argues.

Hen and Chim both give each other a look before saying, “Okay let's transport him to the hospital.”

When they get back Buck’s nerves are already frayed as Eddie and he wait to be yelled at by Bobby.

But they’re even more so the second his phone rings.

It’s the nursing home and Buck answers and says, “I know, but something came up and...I couldn’t.”

“ I’m just sorry you couldn’t be there for your mother,” the nurse sighs.

“Ms. Henry, if my mother were lucid, she would understand. She did this sort of thing countless times. And besides, she doesn’t even know who I am, anyway, so…,” Buck explains.

“Today she did,” the nurse says suddenly.

“What?” Buck asks stopping in his tracks.

“Your mother’s been asking when her son Evan gets off from work,” the nurse tells him.

Buck swallows at that but the thoughts are quickly interrupted by Eddie’s voice behind him says, “Hey.”   
  


Buck quickly hangs up and turns and says, “Uh...hey.”

Eddie smiles gently and says, “A lot of secret phone calls today.”   
  


Buck stares at Eddie for a beat and takes him in. This man he...trusts and feels more for than he ever did for Abby maybe. This man who’s let him into his home and life with his son. This man he’s willing to risk his career for apparently, to have.

Buck swallows and then says, “Yeah, uh it’s my mother…”

Eddie gives a short nod before Buck says, “She isn’t a lawyer anymore...She isn’t anything. I’ve been...lying or omitting her from the narrative with everyone really.”   
  


Eddie brow furrows as he looks at Buck and asks, “Why?”

Buck lets out a shaky breath and says, “She...she has Alzheimer’s.”

Eddie stares back at him and shifts his lips turning into a frown, “How advanced?” He asks.

“Very,” Buck sniffs and then explains, “She...she’s in a home and...I’m the only person she has left. And I just...I don’t know what to do anymore, you know? We weren’t close...ever...and now I’m supposed to…”

Eddie frowns before drawing Buck into his arms and holding him as Buck dips his face into his shoulder for a moment.

Eddie pulls back just a bit to cup Buck’s cheek and look at him and brush his fingers through his hair before leaning down and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Buck wraps his arm around Eddie’s waist and holds onto him face burying into his chest again before Bobby’s voice says, “Eddie, Buck, come over here.”

Buck knows this probably didn’t help their case but it’s worth it. And as they walk over there Buck convinces himself for sure that this is worth risking his job.

“You two want to tell me how long this has been going on?” Bobby asks.

“Since before I started here actually,” Eddie offers up as Bobby gives them a look of disbelief.

“How so? I mean Buck and Abby,” Bobby begins.

“There may have been a little cross over. Not while she was here of course, but there may have been some crossover in that period when I was still convinced we were together and with him,” Buck says biting his lip.

“Personal relationships between members of the same station are generally frowned upon,” Bobby states.

“Which is why we’ve attempted to keep our personal matters outside of work,” Buck says.

Bobby gives them another look and Eddie adds, “Though I do admit there have been some slip-ups. Not when on calls of course, but around the firehouse.”

Bobby frowns and says, “Buck your track record and if I need to remind you of the last time I fired you…”

“You got fired?” Eddie whispers.

“I told you that this wasn’t the first time there has been an inappropriate work-related incident,” Buck mutters.

“With who?” Eddie asks.

“Not anyone here you dolt...a person…,” Buck replies.

“A person...a person you saved?” Eddie asks.

“It was a long time ago,” Buck reasons.

“Less than a year,” Bobby comments.

“Fine, less than a year, but I’m not that guy anymore and this isn’t just...God...this isn’t just sex, Bobby,” Buck huffs.

“Which is almost more worrying, I don’t want to have to deal with the fallout when this breaks down,” Bobby replies.

“Well if you want Chimney and Hen have a pool on how long this is going to last so if it does go down in flames at least you’ll make some money off of it,” Buck offers up.

“Hen and Chimney know?” Bobby asks.

“Yeah, a little firehouse PDA mishap there too,” Eddie hums rubbing his jaw.

“Who else knows?” Bobby groans rubbing his forehead.

Buck and Eddie exchange a look and Buck coughs and says, “Uh...Athena may have caught us uh...post-coital...one night in Eddie’s car. Not on work time.”

Bobby stares at them hard and says, “And what she patted you on the back?”

“Uh, no. She’s been giving us different hoops to jump through, a serious of Athena speeches, and Athena looks,” Buck states.

This makes Bobby laugh and he says, “Well that’s more of a punishment than I could ever give you I think. I’m still not sure about this, and you’ll likely have to fill something out with HR. I expect your work to come first and be as good as ever and that this will not affect your ability to work with one another.”

“Yes sir,” he and Eddie both say.

“Then you’re free to go home. Just try and save any PDA for outside of the firehouse as well.”

They both hop up and hurry downstairs to the locker room and Eddie laughs as they undress and says, “Long day.”

“Yeah,” Buck sighs pulling on his street clothes.

Eddie grins and says, “Somewhere out there, there’s a steak with your name on it and maybe a bottle of wine.”

Buck groans softly and pulls his bag over his shoulder and says, “This is why I keep you around.”

They walk out together and go back to Eddie. It’s 9 am and Christopher who spent the night at Abuela’s has already been picked up by Carla and taken to school.

So they’re free to just go to bed and crash into their sheets and sleep until around four when they’ll go out on their date while Chris stays at Abuela’s again.

Buck and Eddie shower together with Eddie washing Buck up and then getting the same treatment alongside and generous makeout session before they slink their way off to bed.

Eddie pulls Buck close to his chest and whispers, “Thanks for uh...telling me about your mom...for trusting me.”   
  


Buck sighs softly and knots his fingers with Eddie’s and says, “You’re the first person I’ve ever told.”

Eddie leans in and presses a kiss to the base of Buck’s skull as his phone rings and he’s quick to silent it before cuddling Buck up into his arms.

Around four they pull themselves out of bed and start getting dressed up to go to some fancy restaurant and Eddie stares at Buck and says, “So we need to talk.”   
  


Buck just smiles and says, “Wine first, talk later.”

Eddie laughs softly and pulls him in by his waist and says, “Trying to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me?”

“Mmm...maybe,” Buck whispers against Eddie’s lips before kissing him.

“I think I can get on board with that,” Eddie whispers back.

“Yeah, me too,” Buck grins giving him one more peck before pulling away.

Eddie does Buck’s tie for him after laughing at Buck’s many failed attempts to do it respectably.

“Ready to go?” Eddie asks.

“Mmm...ready,” Buck says.

Eddie helps Buck put on his jacket and gives his hair a little stroke through kissing him softly before grabbing his hand and walking to the door with him.

He opens it up to a woman with an orange top and long brown hair and wide blue eyes staring up at him and Eddie freezes while Buck simply says, “Oh.”

He sees the woman take in Buck before Eddie turns to him and says, “Buck...I’m...I’m so sorry…”

Buck looks at him confused and then over to the woman at the same time Eddie turns to her and says, “Shannon, what are you doing here?”

Shannon smiles a bit and says, “Well you’d know if you bothered to return any one of phone calls,” her attention turns to Buck and she offers out her hand and Eddie follows it as Buck takes it and Shannon says, “Hi I’m Shannon Diaz.”

Buck stares back at her and says soft and confused, “Diaz?”

Shannon pulls her hand back and points to Buck and says, “And you must be the man that’s been screwing my husband,” and points back to Eddie.

Buck’s brain processes this, as Eddie shakes his head at Shannon and Buck’s head slowly, turns to look at Eddie as the hurt boils underneath his skin.


End file.
